A sixth-generation packaging company is expanding into Arizona with plans for a polypropylene carton manufacturing site near Phoenix.
SeaCa Packaging expects the $17 million facility will be completed in April. The project is expected to create 65 new jobs during its initial phase.
SeaCa Packaging is a unit of Seattle-Tacoma Box Co., which dates to 1889 as a wooden box maker. The company later expanded into paper-based corrugated containers.
The company entered the PP corrugated box market in 2014, and is now expanding those operations to Surprise, Ariz.
SeaCa's corrugated plastic containers, used for produce and seafood shipments, are touted as an alternative to wax-coated paper fiber corrugated containers. Wax-coated containers have come under increasing scrutiny because they cannot be recycled. SeaCa touts its PP containers as being 100 percent recyclable.
"'Yesterday's methods on today's jobs will put us out of business tomorrow.' This was a quote my brother stated over a half century ago, yet it still remains just as true," says Ferd Nist, president of Seattle Tacoma Box, in a statement.
"As a corporation we still embrace this mantra, which pushes us to continually develop innovative products," he continued.
Surprise is located about 45 minutes from downtown Phoenix.
