Thackeray said Wednesday she was "totally thrilled" with P&G's announcement.

"This is a company of the caliber that we're looking for, that will mesh well with the really quality companies we already have here," she said. "We are just really excited to keep up the caliber of companies we have."

She reiterated comments made last week before the GOED board about such a facility enabling young Box Elder residents to remain near their home area because they will have quality jobs locally.

"I want to be able to keep the children here, for them to have the quality jobs so they will be able to have a home, raise their children and stay here," she said. "We don't do a good job of keeping our children."

"We couldn't be happier," Davis said. "I think it's just a great win for the community and a great opportunity for economic development in Utah."

In a prepared statement, Huntsman said that Utahns "can take pride in the fact Procter & Gamble has chosen to locate its newest manufacturing plant here."

"It's been an honor for me over the past several months getting to know many of P&G's executive team," he said. "I now look forward to officially welcoming one of America's top corporate citizens to the state of Utah."

Utah had competition from at least two other states for the new facility, and P&G also could have opted to expand other facilities rather than build a new plant. Utahns involved in the selection process said they became more confident in Utah's chances as their work continued.

"I was hopeful always that this would be the answer, and we certainly provided a huge amount of information to them," Perry said. "We responded to their requests, and they responded to ours. There was a significant amount of dialogue between the state and Procter & Gamble through the past couple of months — enough to make make me very optimistic.

"There was, in a very real sense, significant competition for this. We did not know where those spots were, only that they existed, and we had to be the A-team. We had to do all the things you needed to do, and we had to be very professional about it because this is the big game."

Davis said he thought Utah would be the top choice for the company if it picked a "greenfield" site rather than a plant expansion.

"My biggest fear was we would not have sufficient infrastructure in place to be competitive with the other competing locations," he said. "But as we got closer, I thought that if they go with a greenfield, we were No. 1. If they go with the easy decision — the more conservative decision — they would just decide to expand internally."

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