Poly-America LP of Grand Prairie, Texas, will invest $100 million to build its fourth U.S. extrusion plant, the company announced Oct. 10.
The plant will be in Chester County, S.C., between the cities of Chester and Richburg. Poly-America is following through on plans initially reported last year, when it started searching for a site in the Southeast.
``They are building a new facility here,'' confirmed Karlisa Parker, county economic development director, in an Oct. 10 telephone interview. ``We're very excited to have the kind of caliber of company that Poly-America is.''
Poly-America officials did not return several calls before deadline.
In an Oct. 10 news release, company and local officials said the site will serve the Southeast, mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
In business since the 1970s, Poly-America extrudes film for trash bags, construction and shrink applications, and Poly-Flex-brand geomembranes.
The new plant, which will be roughly 450,000 square feet according to local newspaper reports, will be known as Poly-East and should be operating by 2008.
Chester County is facing a number of layoffs in its textile industry, Parker said. By March, the county will lose 780 jobs when a local textile plant closes.
``We're hearing rumblings of activity that might bring additional job losses,'' Parker said. ``Drastic times, drastic measures.''
The county has a population of 34,000, and a workforce of 16,000. Unemployment is about 10.6 percent, and local officials are treating the planned, 400-worker factory as a welcome addition.
The county offered $21.7 million in incentives to Poly-America. Chester County was competing with Lexington County, S.C. Officials there, reached by telephone Oct. 9, had no comment.
The Chester site will be located on more than 200 acres, leaving room for expansion in an industrial park that also is eligible for state tax credits, local news reports said.
According to Plastics News' 2006 ranking of film and sheet manufacturers, Poly-America had estimated 2005 sales of $215 million.
The company operates plants in Grand Prairie; Cottage Grove, Minn.; and Henderson, Nev.