Printpack Inc. is spending more than $25 million to expand the company's rigid packaging operations in Newport News, Va.
The growth will add 50 jobs at Printpack Rigid, which was founded more than 30 years ago in Virginia, the company said.
“We decided to expand in Virginia largely because our well-established, capable workforce provides us a solid base of expertise to build upon,” said Jim Stevenson, Printpack's director of operations-rigid, in a statement. “Strong relationships with and support from our local governments made expansion in Virginia a solid decision.”
Gov. Terry McAuliffe's office said Virginia competed against Missouri to land the $25.7 million project.
The governor's office approved a total of $350,000 in two separate grants to help fund the project. Printpack also will be eligible for state benefits through the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program, the state said. A state jobs program will provide funding and services to help train workers.
Prinkpack, which also makes flexible plastic packaging, said it pioneered barrier rigid containers for shelf stable packaging. The company's solid phase pressure forming process changed the market and allowed products such as fruit to move from metal cans to plastic, the company said.
Along with expanding in Newport News, Printpack said it is undertaking a recapitalization program at other facilities to expand “manufacturing capabilities by adding the most advanced technology and equipment offered in the industry.” These equipment improvements will improved graphics.
Printpack, based in Atlanta, was founded in 1956 as a one-man operation by J. Erskine Love Jr. It now has sales of $1.2 billion globally.
The privately owned firm has more than 4,000 workers and operates 25 manufacturing sites in the United States, Mexico and China.
“Printpack pioneered the barrier rigid container business in Virginia in 1984 and have been growing here ever since,” Stevenson said, in a statement.
Printpack is the seventh largest plastics film and sheet manufacturer in North America, according to Plastics News' most recent ranking and is at No. 18 in the most recent ranking of thermoformers.
