ATLANTA (Updated June 1, 12:35 p.m. ET) — Flexible packager Printpack Inc. will shutter its Hendersonville, N.C., plant and move production to a new facility in Wisconsin, the company announced May 31.
Printpack will break ground on the new plant in Rhineland, Wis., this fall. The facility will produce food packaging for the company's snacks division, and should begin operating by the second-half of 2013.
Over the next 18 months, the company will transition business from its food-packaging plant in Hendersonville to the Rhineland location, said a company spokeswoman.
The new plant will offer increased capacity, making it necessary to close the Hendersonville location, the company said in a news release.
The Hendersonville plant employs 115 workers. Printpack is working to offer qualified employees positions elsewhere in the company, and those who are not relocated will be given severance packages, the spokeswoman said.
Printpack currently operates a food-packaging plant at another location in Rhineland. When the new plant is completed, the current location will close.
Printpack will invest about $72 million in the new location and equipment.
Final plans, including an exact location for the plant, have not been determined, but the facility will be about 200,000 square feet and located within five miles of the current plant, said Terry Harper, vice president of technology and support, in a telephone interview.
The new plant will employ about 150 workers. Printpack currently employees 138 workers at the Rhineland plant, and will transition those employees to the new location, Harper said.
The company received a $1.7 million loan and $300,000 in tax credits from Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. According to a news release from WEDC, Printpack could receive up to $12 million in New Market Tax Credits.
Atlanta-based Printpack has more than 4,000 employees at 28 plants in the U.S., Mexico, England, Poland and China. The company posted $1.5 billion in total sales last year.
Printpack is the seventh-largest film and sheet manufacturer in North America, and ranks No. 20 in thermoforming, according to Plastics News' sales based rankings.