Facility will be company’s 4th Kentucky location, creating 68 Bowling Green jobs
Bowling Green, Ky. – Graham Packaging, a manufacturer and designer of blow-molded plastic containers used to package a variety of consumer projects, broke ground on a new facility in Bowling Green today.
Graham Packaging plans to create up to 68 Bowling Green jobs and invest $22 million over the life of the project.
Graham Packaging plans to work with a developer to construct a 216,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in the South Central Kentucky Industrial Park, as well as purchase new molding equipment. This facility will primarily support Sun Products, a North American provider of laundry detergent, fabric softeners and other household products. The company plans to be operational by early next year.
Graham Packaging has a strong Kentucky presence with three current facilities – one in Lexington and two in Florence. The company employs 230 people in the Commonwealth.
“The Graham Packaging team is very excited about joining the Bowling Green community,” said Malcolm Bundey, CEO of Graham Packaging Co. “We are very impressed with the quality of the workforce and sincerely appreciate the support from the citizens of Kentucky and especially Warren County to make it possible for us to locate and grow here. We look forward to supporting Sun Products, and the Bowling Green community for many years to come.”
Founded in 1970, Graham Packaging operates more than 90 plants around the world and is a worldwide leader in design and manufacture of customer rigid plastic packaging, serving the world’s finest brands across the food, beverage, household care, automotive and personal care markets. Many of the household products used every day are in Graham Packaging containers. In addition to a history of innovation, Graham leads a number of initiatives to provide environmentally sustainable containers, including plant-based ingredients as well as use of recycled plastics.
“It’s not the number of companies in a community that make a location a success; it is the quality of businesses that thrive there,” said Bowling Green Mayor Bruce Wilkerson. “Graham Packaging exemplifies a company that has garnered not only the community’s respect, but the respect of industry leaders around the world. Its presence will foster new growth and give other area businesses another partner in success.”
To encourage the investment and job growth in Bowling Green, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) preliminarily approved the company for tax incentives up to $1.2 million through the Kentucky Business Investment program. The performance-based incentive allows a company to keep a portion of its investment over the term of the agreement through corporate income tax credits and wage assessments by meeting job and investment targets.
KEDFA also approved Graham Packaging for tax benefits up to $300,000 through the Kentucky Enterprise Initiative Act, which allows approved companies to recoup Kentucky sales and use tax on construction costs, building fixtures, equipment used in research and development and electronic processing equipment.
In addition, Graham Packaging is eligible to receive resources from the Kentucky Skills Network. Through the Kentucky Skills Network, companies are eligible to receive no-cost recruitment and job placement services, reduced-cost customized training and job training incentives. Last year, the Kentucky Skills Network trained more than 84,000 employees from more than 4,100 Kentucky companies.
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