Glatfelter, the York-based paper and materials company, plans to build an $80 million manufacturing plant in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the company announced.

The plant will create as many as 83 manufacturing jobs and is expected to open in late 2017, Glatfelter said in a joint news release with the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce and Arkansas Economic Development Corp.

“Glatfelter is a world-class company that is making a significant investment in Fort Smith while creating jobs that will improve the lives of many area families,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in the release. Fort Smith is about 150 miles northwest of Little Rock, the state capital.

The plant could increase Glatftelter's capacity for producing advanced airlaid materials, including personal hygiene products. It won't have any impact on operations at Glatfelter's manufacturing plant in Spring Grove, William Yanavitch, a Glatfelter senior vice president, said in an email Wednesday.

The company plans to "retrofit" a former Mitsubishi Power Systems facility, Yanavitch said.

“We are truly excited to partner with the people of Fort Smith and Arkansas because we know that investing here makes great business sense for our company,” Chris Astley, president of Glatfelter’s Advanced Airlaid Materials Business Unit, said in the release.

Locating in Fort Smith benefits the business in a number of ways, Astley said.

"It will enable us to expand our capacity to meet our customers’ growing demand for our advanced airlaid products, provide us with closer proximity to key suppliers and customers, and link us to highly efficient transportation routes across the South," he said.  "Equally important, it will allow us to tap into the area’s high-quality workforce.”

The plant's construction is subject to Glatfelter closing on the purchase of the former Mitsubishi Power Systems facility and Fort Smith's Board of Directors approving the project, Glatfelter said.

The plant would be Glatfelter's 13th manufacturing plant around the world.

 

Source : ydr.com

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