Canada's Irving Tissue plans a $600 million factory expansion in Georgia, hiring 100 more workers

[November 22, 2024]  MACON, Ga. (AP) — A Canadian company announced Thursday that it will spend $600 million to expand its tissue paper mill in Georgia, hiring 100 more workers.

Irving Tissue said it needs to expand in Macon because the mill is currently selling all the bath tissue and paper towels it can make. The privately held firm will add a third paper machine, increasing output by 50%.

“We’ve had tremendous success in Macon and with the plant currently sold out, this is the right plant for the expansion.” Marc Doucette, Irving's vice president of communications, wrote in an email.

The company, which currently has 400 workers, announced the plan Thursday as it celebrated the fifth anniversary of the mill, which makes private-label products for retailers.

The expansion will also include an automated warehouse and new converting lines to turn the tissue into finished projects. Company President Robert K. Irving said the pulp to supply the additional paper machine would come from Irving's pulp mill in Saint John, New Brunswick, with wood supplied from timberland the company owns in New Brunswick and Maine.

The warehouse is scheduled to be complete in 2026, and the new paper machine is scheduled to be complete in 2027, Doucette said.

The factory was originally built with one paper machine, but added a second machine at the time it opened in 2019.

The Macon plant currently produces 165,000 tons (150,000 metric tons) of tissue per year. Once the addition is complete, the plant will make 248,000 tons (225,000 metric tons).

Workers at the plant make from $22 an hour to more than $30 an hour, Doucette said. That works out to a wage range of $45,760 a year to more than $62,400 a year.

Irving could qualify for $2 million in state income tax credits, at $4,000 per job over five years, as long as workers earn at least $35,600 a year. Macon-Bibb County could also grant property tax breaks on Irving's equipment and property. Doucette said the company is in talks about tax abatements and other possible incentives.

Irving Tissue is based in Dieppe, New Brunswick and is part of a family-owned industrial conglomerate that also includes an oil company, railroads, media and shipyards.

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