REDWOOD CITY, CALIF. — Free-Flow Packaging International Inc. said Feb. 24 it is establishing its seventh, and largest, domestic manufacturing plant.
FP International plans in early May to break ground in Hopkinsville, Ky., for a 160,000-square-foot facility and have the 21.5-acre site operational in early 2000 making polyethylene foam and other products.
The Redwood City-based company is investing more than $8.2 million in the plant and equipment and expects the site eventually to employ about 60. The facility will have a PE reclaim system to recycle both plant scrap and other scrap collected from customers using Cushion-Lite PE foam.
State, county and local officials praised the economic development and welcomed FP International to the area.
The new capacity ``will allow us to expand our product lines and better serve existing customers throughout the Midwest,'' Arthur Graham, FP International president, said in a statement. He founded the firm in 1967.
Privately held FP International makes a wide range of protective packaging products and dispensing systems. The firm employs 450 and has annual sales of more than $60 million, serving automotive, computer, pharmaceutical, electronic, furniture, housewares and lighting industries.
Other plants are located in Redwood City and Commerce, Calif.; Atlanta; Auburn, Mass.; Thornton, Ill.; Newark, Del.; Villiers-le-Bel, France; Herbrechtingen, Germany and Heerlen, the Netherlands.