Winpak Portion Packaging Inc., the rigid packaging business unit of Winpak Ltd., will build a new manufacturing plant in the Chicago area for $30 million.
The plant, in Sauk Village, Ill., will create 40 jobs immediately and will employ more in the future, according to a May 4 news release from Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn.
“Sauk Village is a good fit in these times as most communities are losing jobs, especially in the area of manufacturing. We welcome this opportunity to bring economic development to our community,” Mayor Lewis Towers said in the release.
Winpak Portion Packaging for 40 years has operated a 105,000-square-foot plant in South Chicago Heights, Ill., that employs 200 and produces cups and trays for food and beverages.
“We are very pleased to be able to expand operations in the state of Illinois,” said James McMacken, President of Winpak Portion Packaging Inc., in the release.
According to a release on Sauk Village's Facebook page, the new plant will be built on a 28-acre site. It initially will be 267,000 square feet, with room for expanding the facility up to 600,000 square feet.
The project, which broke ground in April, is scheduled for completion in February.
The state of Illinois is spending $1.6 million to aid Winpak's new investment, according to the release. The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Development is administering the aid package, which consists of tax credits based on job creation, and job-training funds to enhance skills of the company's workforce.
Winnipeg, Manitoba-based Winpak Ltd. in March said it would open a new U.S. facility as part of a five-year capital investment program that includes $60 million in spending this year alone. That figure is twice the firm's capital expenditures in each of 2010 and 2009.
Winpak Ltd. employs about 2,000 at nine plants in the U.S. and Canada. The parent company reported annual sales of $579 million in 2010, with about 78 percent in the U.S.
For the first quarter of 2011, Winpak Ltd. reported profit of $15 million on sales of $149 million, compared with profit of $16 million on sales of $133 million for the year-ago period.
The parent company ranked No. 13 among North American film and sheet manufacturers in Plastics News' most recent survey, with 2009 related sales of about $492 million. Winpak Portion Packaging Inc. ranked No. 13 in the thermoforming survey, with related 2009 sales of about $130 million.
