Absolute Plastics, a thermoformer of food packaging, is opening a plant in Wilson, N.C., this fall.
The $18 million project is expected to produce 150 jobs in the next three years, according to an Aug. 15 news release from Gov. Jim Easley.
The new company is receiving a $300,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund, which helps the state recruit companies and support expansion. The grants require local matching funds.
The company is leasing a 107,000-square-foot building that once housed a Linpac Plastics Ltd. plant that made polystyrene food containers. Genpak LLC of Glens Falls, N.Y., bought the assets of that operation in February 2004, and the plant closed two months later.
The state's news release quoted Ray Bryson as an official of the new company, but did not give his title. A state Department of Commerce spokesman said Absolute is a new company, founded by a team with plastics industry experience. Bryson could not be reached for comment.
While Easley's office said the company is investing $18 million in the project, the Daily Times in Wilson, N.C., quoted Jennifer Lantz, executive director of the Wilson Economic Development Council, as saying that Absolute actually will invest about $25 million in the next three to five years in equipment. According to that story, Absolute also looked at sites in South Carolina and Virginia, and the final choice was between Wilson and Chester, Va.
In a news release, Bryson said Absolute picked Wilson because the city has labor available, and the site is close to railroads, interstate highways, suppliers and customers.
``It was ... the collective efforts of the governor's office and local agencies that made it possible for the company to locate in North Carolina,'' he said.