A company specializing in plastic resins for ships announced Thursday it will build a second facility in Savannah, an $80 million expansion that will lead to the hiring of 200 new employees.
Plastic Express will build a 980,000-square-foot logistics facility in Savannah, which will be capable of packaging 4 million pounds of resin each day, according to a news release. The facility, at the Rockingham Farms Industrial Park along Veterans Parkway, is five miles from the Port of Savannah and is serviced by CSX rail lines.
More than 70% of 2022′s economic development projects were business expansions, and Gov. Brian Kemp celebrated Plastic Express for continuing that trend.
“Job creators like Plastic Express choose to expand their footprints in Georgia because they know we’re a great bet,” Kemp said in the release.
Founded in 1970, Plastic Express operates bulk trucking, packaging and warehousing services for the plastics industry across the country. The company, which is headquartered in Pasadena, Texas, currently operates its Savannah facility and a nearby manufacturing plant in Pooler, which combine to employ 200 workers. The new facility, which will double its number of Georgia employees, is expected to begin operations by mid-2024.
A 2022 report by the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business commissioned by the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) found that the state’s deep-water ports in Savannah and Brunswick support 561,000 jobs across the state. GPA leaders plan to expand the Port of Savannah with a third cargo container terminal, which is expected to increase the port’s capacity by 3 million containers annually once it opens in 2030.
“As one of the best-connected, gateway ports in the U.S., the Port of Savannah is ready to help Plastic Express succeed in a competitive environment,” Griff Lynch, GPA president and CEO, said in the release.
Plastic Express will likely qualify for job creation tax credits and worker training through Georgia Quick Start. A Georgia Department of Economic Development spokesperson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that no discretionary incentives were offered as part of this expansion.
About the Author
