La. packaging company completes $8.6 million expansion

An $8.6 million expansion of Graphic Packaging International Inc.’s consumer carton facility in West Monroe has enabled the company to quadruple its container production and introduce new packaging for Kraft Foods’ Capri Sun beverages that will save 16 tons of paper annually, reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32% and reduce energy usage by nearly 38%—enough energy to power 6,600 homes for a year, the company says. Graphic Packaging welcomed Gov. Bobby Jindal to the facility today to announce the completion of the expansion. The company says the project created 47 new jobs paying an average of $45,000 a year, plus benefits. LED estimates the project will create an additional 117 indirect jobs. To secure the expansion project, the state offered Graphic Packaging a 5% Modernization Tax Credit paid over five years and valued at $430,000, and it’s also expected to utilize the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption program. Altogether, 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. Read more about today’s announcement here.