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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Graphic Packaging Completes $8.6 Million Expansion At Its West Monroe, Louisiana Facility

06/29/2012
Graphic Packaging International Inc. completed an $8.6 million expansion of its consumer carton facility in West Monroe, Louisiana, where it created 47 new direct jobs, and retained 456 jobs associated with the company's beverage and consumer carton facilities.

Graphic Packaging employs 1,460 people at four Louisiana facilities, including an 833-employee paperboard mill and two other sites in West Monroe, and one site in Arcadia. The latest expansion enabled the company to quadruple container production at the consumer carton plant and introduce innovative packaging for Kraft Foods Inc.'s Capri Sun beverages that will save 16 tons of paper annually, reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent and reduce energy usage by nearly 38 percent, Louisiana Economic Development said.

Gov.Bobby Jindal said; "Today's announcement is not only great news for West Monroe, but for all of North Louisiana, as Graphic Packaging's investment helps secure more than 1,400 jobs at the company's facilities. We've been working with the company since 2008, and they ultimately decided to expand here because of our state's strong business climate and because of the incredible workforce located here in West Monroe and across North Louisiana."

"We are proud of the partnership we have established with the great state of Louisiana and with LED," David Scheible, the Graphic Packaging's Chief Executive Officer. "This investment has allowed for job growth and a positive impact to the state economy."

Included in a package of incentives to secure the project, Louisiana offered Graphic Packaging the state's Modernization Tax Credit, a 5 percent credit paid over five years and valued at $430,000 for the project. The company also received customized workforce solutions from LED FastStart and is expected to utilize the state's Industrial Tax Exemption program.

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