Plant breaks ground in Utah

TOOELE — Household products giant Reckitt Benckiser is coming to Utah.

The global company broke ground Wednesday on a $35 million logistics, manufacturing and distribution center across the street from Miller Motorsports Park.

Construction of the 600,000-square-foot facility is scheduled to be completed during the first quarter of 2010 and could bring as many as 200 new jobs to Utah when the facility is at full capacity, Jason Perry, executive director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development, told the Deseret News. A company news release stated the facility would "ultimately create over 100 jobs at the site."

"We are excited to become a part of the Tooele County community," Brad Newman, director of North America Supply Services for Reckitt Benckiser, said in the release. "An extensive study of our supply chain determined that distribution from the Salt Lake City area will improve our financial results and also enhance service for the growing concentration of customers in the Pacific Northwest and in western Canada."

Reckitt Benckiser makes Woolite, Lysol, Electrasol, French's Mustard and several other products. The company has operations in 60 countries and sells its products in 180 nations.

The Utah center will be the distribution hub for the Pacific Northwest and western Canada. The project will include a 574,106-square-foot building that will consist of 16,000 square feet of office space and 510,000 square feet of warehouse and custom packaging operations, according to the release. The design allows for an additional 220,000 square feet of future expansion.

The release said the new facility will replace an existing logistics center in Phoenix.

Reckitt Benckiser, based in the United Kingdom, has about 23,000 employees and 42 manufacturing facilities worldwide.

The company decided to build in Utah after talks with GOED, the Economic Development Corp. of Utah and Tooele County.

In July 2008, the GOED board awarded a $1.9 million tax credit over 10 years to Reckitt Benckiser to build a distribution and logistics center in rural Utah. The incentive was for new jobs paying 25 percent above the Tooele County median wage.

The facility is the first tenant in what will be the Miller Motorsports Business Park, Greg Miller, chief executive officer of the Larry H. Miller Group, said Wednesday.