Page 23 - Plastics News January 2017

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Sterilite may invest $73 million in massive Iowa plant

Plastics housewares company Sterilite Corp. is proposing “Sterilite is an American-made company,” he said. “Every
to build a large manufacturing and distribution center product made by Sterilite is made here in the United

in Davenport, Iowa. The firm is eyeing a 2.5 million-square- States.” Sterilite is the largest plastics housewares

foot building that would cost about $73 million for the company in North America. The firm also has operations in

building and land purchase. The project would create 500 Alabama, Arizona, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas. It was

jobs within five years with initial employment pegged at founded in 1939 by Saul and Edward Stone and Earl Tupper,

150. Sterilite’s originally to make heels for women’s shoes. Sterilite

Davenport plant entered plastic housewares in the 1960s. Sterilite’s most

will be the city’s recently built plants are in Ennis, Texas, and Clinton, S.C.

largest building

when it opens in Amcor expanding packaging
early 2018. The plant in Ohio
construction
site is a 160- Amcor Rigid Plastics is spending tens of millions of
acre plot. “Five dollars to expand a plastic packaging manufacturing
hundred new site in Ohio. The Ann Arbor, Michigan.-based company,
jobs in the community is always impactful,” Davenport a division of global plastics giant Amcor Ltd., said
Mayor Frank Klipsch said. He indicated Davenport’s skilled the $40 million
workforce is a key component in Sterilite’s deliberations. investment
Construction of the new factory is in line with the area will just about
governments’ urban renewal efforts. About 400 of the new double both
Sterilite jobs would pay between $12 to $16 per hour, with manufacturing
most of the rest paying about $18.75 per hour or more. and warehouse
Davenport’s city council plans to vote on tax incentives for space. Amcor
the project this week. And other local and state agencies has been in
also need to sign off on the incentives. City officials had Bellevue, Ohio,
been studying the proposal for about six months. for 30 years, and the construction will involve 126,000
square feet of new manufacturing space and 85,000
According to reports, Peter Stone, a Sterilite executive and square feet of new warehouse space. The facility
grandson of the firm’s founder, told council meeting that makes preforms as well as injection and blow molded
the Midwest location, local infrastructure and an educated plastic containers.
workforce were among the attractions of Davenport. Also
key was that land in the Eastern Iowa Industrial Center was “During this strong period of growth for our business,
ready for development. “Having a shovel-ready site that we’re fortunate to be able to make this substantial
was all set up and ready to hit the ground running should investment at our Bellevue site,” said Ann O’Hara,
it be the right fit was very helpful and not something we vice president and general manager for Amcor’s
saw in [every other] state,” Stone said. Several incentive Diversified Products business unit. O’Hara indicated
programs are being tapped for Sterilite’s Iowa project. the site in Northwest Ohio is “a strategic geographic
They include a $3 million forgiveable loan, a $1.8-million location for Amcor” as the area also is home to many
rail spur and other infrastructure improvements worth of the company’s customers in the food, healthcare
$4.6 million, and partial rebate of property taxes worth and consumer segments. The conversion from glass to
about $8.3 million. Stone touted his company’s reliance plastic packaging also is adding to the need for more
on U.S production as a marketing advantage. production capacity, she said in the statement.

23 • January 2017 • Plastics News