Industry-leading international business chooses Little Rock for 1st U.S. production facility
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A new international company is launching production in the United States, and they’ve chosen Arkansas as their home.
Elopak is the world’s leading supplier of recyclable cartons, used in stores for dairy, juices, liquid eggs and more. They already shipped 14 billion cartons to 70 countries last year, but according to an announcement Tuesday, none of those cartons were being made in America.
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Construction will soon begin on a 300,000-square-foot facility for the company on 6101 Zeuber Road inside the Port of Little Rock.
The Natural State officially beat out 24 other locations across five states to become the home of Elopak production inside the U.S. according to Reinard Dreesmann, whos is the Elopak Vice President of Operations in the Americas.
“From all the locations that I looked Little Rock wasn’t the biggest place,” Dreesman said. “It was the smallest, but it acted big. It thought big.”
River, rail, road and runway all within minutes of each other impressed the Norweigan company. So did investment in the future and sustainability, but one other location had it all. That is, except, what Mayor Frank Scott Jr. called Little Rock’s secret sauce.
“That secret sauce of our people,” Scott said. “It shows what we can do.”
The 300,000-square-foot facility is a $70 million investment that will create 100 permanent new jobs. Dreesmann said Elopak is looking forward to onboarding the first two or three people in the coming months.
“I had a feeling that in Little Rock there’s a lot of progress. So you can have a great strategy, and you can have a great vision,” Dreesman said. “It also seems that the people living in that area, they share in that. They believe in that. And that for me was really the most deciding reasoning for Elopak to choose Little Rock.”
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There were some tax back and rebate incentives from the state to seal the deal. $1.25 million was also given from the governor’s Quick Action Closing Fund.
“I think so many people, not just within the country but around the world are seeing what Arkansas and Little Rock have to offer, and they are willing to invest not just a little bit but invest big,” Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in an announcement.
Norway will also be the seventh international flag flying at Little Rock’s Port.
“Not only is it about the people, it’s about Little Rock truly being a distribution hub right here in the heartland in these United States of America,” the mayor expressed.
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Groundbreaking for the facility should start in January 2024. Dreesman said Elopak hopes to start moving equipment in a year from then.
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