Packaging firm to bring 96 jobs to Roanoke County
An international food packaging manufacturer will renovate the old Hanover Direct building.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
An international food packaging company announced Tuesday it will make a $93.5 million investment to buy and renovate the former Hanover Direct building in Roanoke County, creating 96 jobs.
County officials said Ardagh Group’s plant will mark the largest single manufacturing investment in the county’s history.
Executives with the Luxembourg-based can and bottle manufacturer stood alongside local and state officials at the announcement, which was held in the county board of supervisors chambers.
The company purchased the 525,000-square-foot location at 5022 Hollins Road for $14.5 million. Ardagh Group will spend $80 million on building renovations to accommodate a manufacturing operation that will produce 5 percent of the country’s food packaging cans, or 4.5 million cans per day, officials said. The purchase included an additional parcel of land, and the possibility for expansion.
Hanover Direct, a mail-order distributor, eliminated nearly 200 jobs when it closed the distribution center in 2012.
Virginia was one of seven states vying for Ardagh Group’s business, said Jim Cheng, the state secretary of commerce and trade.
“It’s a major win for Virginia,” Cheng said. “We had to put together a great incentives package to close this deal.”
County and state officials said they worked closely with the Virginia Economic Development and Roanoke Regional partnerships for more than seven months to secure the project. The state contributed funding for job recruitment and training, as well as a $750,000 grant from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund, a discretionary incentive used to help localities attract new businesses.
Roanoke County officials are prepared to offer three years of tax reimbursement to Ardagh Group, after which they anticipate collecting about $700,000 per year in local revenue, said Jill Loope, the county’s acting director of economic development. The board of supervisors will vote on the agreement soon.
“This is a validation that the county is progressive,” Loope said. “We’re already getting interest from supplier businesses. We’re ready for business.”
James Willich, the chief executive officer of Ardagh Group’s metals division across the Americas, said his company chose Roanoke County for the building and due to several logistical advantages, including access to Interstate 81. Willich added that the new Hollins location will become the company’s flagship for what a modern can manufacturing facility should look like.
“It really isn’t easy to find a 525,000-square-foot building,” he said. “This site had all the things that we needed.”
Ardagh Group’s 18,000 employees operate more than 100 facilities in 25 countries, producing 26.6 billion containers a year. Cans manufactured by the company are used for a variety of products, including at least three brands of tuna fish and Del Monte foods.
To run the facility in Roanoke County, Ardagh Group announced plans to hire skilled machine operators, managers and support staff.
“We need a good pool of skilled labor,” Willich added. “This isn’t your dad’s manufacturing facility.”
Jobs available at the company will be paid above the county’s median nonfamily income, which was $38,230 in 2011.
He said the company would also be spending money within the community for site maintenance and landscaping, among other things.
Company officials said the second phase of their expansion could come in as soon as two years, and would include the possibility of the plant doubling in size.
Ardagh Group officials first sought to expand their manufacturing base after signing an agreement with ConAgra Foods, a publicly traded food processing company based in Omaha, Neb. The company used a consulting group to seek locations for facility sites, which led to communication with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.
The company began talking with the partnership in March, and visited the Roanoke County site on at least two occasions, said VEDP spokeswoman Suzanne Clark.
“In this case, because of their contract with ConAgra, they were under a pretty aggressive time frame to get things running,” Clark said. “In order to meet their timeline we put all the players in front of the company to make sure everyone was working together to meet the needs of the company.”
Because the VEDP works in cooperation with localities across the state, Clark would not say if the partnership presented Ardagh Group other site alternatives in Virginia.
Willich said the plant likely would be running sometime in the third quarter of 2014, and ready for supplying cans by the start of 2015. The plant is expected to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“This is an important day and a big day for Roanoke County,” said county Supervisor Mike Altizer. “I think it sends a statement to other entities looking at the county.”
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THE ROANOKE TIMES
