THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 27, 1996 TAG: 9609270545
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 53 lines
Your plastic milk jugs soon may be stamped with the words ``made in Newport News.''
Twinpak Inc., a Canadian maker of plastic containers, will open a $14.6 million manufacturing facility in Newport News. The facility, Twinpak's first in the U.S., will employ 55 people. The company expects to hire 100 people within a year, said Julius Denton, president of the Virginia Peninsula Economic Development Council.
The Newport News facility will be affiliated with Twinpak's Dairy & Food Packaging Unit. The Montreal-based packaging company has 17 manufacturing and distribution centers across Canada. It is owned by Amcor Ltd. of Melbourne, Australia, a large, multinational packaging company whose annual sales reach about $4.8 billion.
Twinpak chose Hampton Roads because ``we needed a plant in the eastern seaboard of the United States,'' said John Dale, general manager of the dairy and food packaging group.
Twinpak hired a consultant to look for a location with low costs for freight, distribution, utilities and workers' compensation. A consultant identified Virginia. Twinpak narrowed its search to the Winchester area and Hampton Roads.
It looked at three or four sites in the region. What clinched it for the Newport News site was the access to rail for transportation of raw materials, and the site's space for expansion, Dale said.
Newport News' Industrial Development Authority will build the company's facility and lease it to the company over 20 years, according to the Virginia Peninsula Economic Development Council.
The IDA is scheduled to consider Twinpak's lease at its Oct. 4 meeting.
``We're not in the building business; we're not in the real estate business,'' Dale said.
Construction of a 105,000-square-foot facility with warehouse, manufacturing and office space is scheduled to begin Oct. 14, and be completed in March 1997. Located on 17 acres in Oakland Industrial Park, Twinpak has the capacity to expand to 250,000 square feet.
It makes printed and unprinted rigid containers and lids for the dairy, food and food service markets.
The new center will serve Twinpak's customers in the eastern section of North America. The plant will be able to produce 700 million units initially.
Twinpak will be in an enterprise zone, allowing it to benefit from various tax credits. It will also receive work force training from the Virginia Department of Business Assistance.
In addition, Newport News is seeking a $100,000 state grant from the Industrial Rail Access fund for an extension of railroad tracks to the company's site, said Paul Miller, the city's director of planning and development. by CNB