Procter & Gamble Co. picks Box Elder

Groundbreaking of paper-product plant expected in early '08

Procter & Gamble Co. rolled out plans Wednesday to build a Charmin and Bounty paper-products manufacturing plant in unincorporated Box Elder County.

Procter & Gamble Family Care said the facility will include a new paper machine, converting lines and warehouse space. Groundbreaking is expected in early 2008, with the new paper machine starting up in early 2010.

The Box Elder County plant north of Bear River City is expected to be an initial $300 million investment with approximately 300 employees, on its way to perhaps 1,000 employees a few years later.

"Utah is proud that Procter & Gamble has chosen to locate its newest manufacturing plant here," Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said in a prepared statement. "It's been an honor for me over the past several months to get to know many from the P&G team. I look forward to officially welcoming one of America's top corporate citizens to the state of Utah."

"Procter & Gamble is excited to be joining the community of Box Elder County, Utah," Mary Lynn Ferguson-McHugh, president of P&G Family Care, said in a prepared statement. "We are looking forward to working in partnership with this community for a long time. This facility will increase the number of skilled jobs available in northern Utah while enabling P&G to better serve consumers in the western U.S."

Box Elder County Commissioner Clark Davis said the site is near Bear River City, about 14 miles west of Brigham City on a road referred to locally as the Iowa String.

Procter & Gamble Family Care has five manufacturing sites in the United States: Albany, Ga.; Cape Girardeau, Mo.; Green Bay, Wis.; Mehoopany, Pa.; and Oxnard, Calif. The Box Elder County plant will be the first new Family Care manufacturing facility in the United States since Oxnard began operation in 1973, the company said.

The facility will be in a "greenfield" (farmland) and will be part of P&G's paper products division, which produces Bounty paper towels, Charmin toilet tissue and Puffs tissue.

The plant initially will produce about 80,000 tons of Bounty and Charmin per year and may add Puffs later, Kuta said.

It will be the company's first new greenfield site in the United States in 30 years.

Celeste Kuta, a spokeswoman for P&G Family Care, declined to discuss financial incentives offered by competing locations but acknowledged that P&G had several options for the plant location. It also simply could have expanded existing facilities.

"What it really boiled down to was, what was best value for our shareholders," she said. "We had to look at what provided the best long-term benefit to us. Incentives are part of it, but obviously there are operating costs and the whole package. We had to evaluate all this data and look to see if we would be there for a long term or be there 50 years or 100 years, what's going to provide best value for our shareholders for the long term, and Utah came out on top."

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