Berry Plastics to spend $31 million for new infrastructure and equipment

Back in November, Berry announced the closure and consolidation of three of its factories, including an engineered materials plant in Houston, TX, a flexible packaging plant in Kent, WA and a rigid open top plant in Alsip, IL. Production currently taking place at the three facilities will be transferred to other Berry Plastics facilities located within the U.S. The company is evaluating the closure of two additional factories that have not yet been announced, a company spokesperson told PlasticsToday. 

"The relocation of production equipment to Vanderburgh, Gibson, and Wayne counties from other Berry facilities supports our restructuring efforts, announced in November 2013, to optimize our manufacturing operations, maximize production efficiencies, and best service our customers," said Jon Rich, chairman and CEO of Berry Plastics, in a news release. "We are extremely appreciative of Indiana's city, county, and state officials and other partners such as GAGE and Vectren for their joint support of this initiative."

To encourage the investment and job creation in Indiana, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) offered the company a grant up to $300,000 to facilitate job skills training and $2.35 million in Economic Development for Growing Economy (EDGE) tax credits which may be certified over the next 10 years, according to the release. In addition, the City of Evansville offered the company a 10-year tax phase-in on real property investment, with an estimated value of $1.7 million, and a Modified Schedule of Tax Abatement on personal property investment, with an estimated value of $2.8 million. The city also offered a hiring/training Grant with a maximum of $100,000.

The company will soon begin accepting applications for the aforementioned production jobs, which will be posted in the career section of the company's website.

"Berry Plastics continues to demonstrate its commitment to our city with another major expansion that will create 280 new production jobs at its Evansville facility. The partnership between the city and Berry Plastics has produced new investments exceeding $64 million and a total of 395 production jobs over the past two years," said Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke.