American Packaging opened its new Center of Excellence manufacturing facility for flexible packaging in August 2023. It is the company’s sixth Centre of Excellence in the US and the first on the west coast.
Located in Cedar City, Utah, the facility was developed with an estimated investment of $100m.
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The facility brings production closer to the company’s customers located in the western part of the country. It also brings new business opportunities to the company and supports continuing its growth strategy across current and new markets.
American Packaging announced the project in July 2021 and purchased the land to build the facility in October 2021. The company broke ground for the project in February 2022.
The project is anticipated to create more than 135 high-paying jobs in Iron County in manufacturing, production, engineering and administration.
Location of the Centre of Excellence manufacturing facility
The new manufacturing facility is located in Commerce Crossroads Logistics Park, one of Southern Utah’s newest industrial parks connected by rail.
The site is situated within six miles (9.6km) of I-15 Exit 59 and midway between California ports and major markets in Salt Lake City and Denver. It lies next to the Southern and future Northern Beltway routes.
Site Selection Group, a Texas-based corporate real estate services provider, provided the site selection services to American Packaging for the new facility.
The proximity to major western markets, rail and interstate highways and workforce make Cedar City a favourable location for manufacturing.
American Packaging’s Centre of Excellence manufacturing facility details
The new manufacturing facility is built on 275,000ft² (25,548.3m²) of land and installed with flexographic printing presses (HPE Flexo™) and laminating, preformed pouching and finishing equipment.
The facility features high-quality print media technologies to support the unique packaging requirements of the customers, which makes their products stand out in the market.
American Packaging also invested in state-of-the-art automation, full web defect detection and quality control capabilities to streamline the company’s workflow and better serve the client.
Tax credits secured by American Packaging
The Go Utah Board approved a post-performance tax credit, not exceeding $661,260, for the project, a portion of which American Packaging will earn every year, provided it meets the contractual criteria that it agreed with the state.
Additionally, an Industrial Assistance Account Economic Opportunity Grant of up to $75,000 was approved by the board for infrastructure support.
The company is expected to earn back 25% of the new state taxes that it will pay over the next ten years in the form of a Utah Legislature-authorised Economic Development Tax Increment Finance tax credit.
Services offered by American Packaging
American Packaging offers full-service capabilities and solutions in flexible packaging for several industries, including drinks, dairy, liquid packaging, fresh produce, frozen foods, snacks, groceries, personal care, healthcare and pet food.
The services include engineered laminations and coatings, flexographic printing and laminations, rotogravure printing and laminations, pouch packaging and digital printing.
Its engineered laminations and coatings service brings together multi-material capacity, simple or complex extrusions, engineering capabilities and barrier laminations of films, papers, foils and resins.
American Packaging has introduced HPE Flexo™, a holistic printing ecosystem, to provide flexographic printing and lamination services. It enables American Packaging to meet even the most demanding packaging requirements for a wide range of food, personal care, medical, pharmaceutical and industrial products.
The company uses its engraving process to provide the rotogravure printing and lamination service, which speeds up the response time. It also uses wax coating and adhesive lamination on substrates. The process is known for its high-quality image printing.
American Packaging uses a digital printing process to add coating on both sides of a lamination. The digital system includes automation with robotic material handling, computerised slitting and rewinding and a defect detection system. The integration of these systems results in faster and more efficient printing, offering quick turnaround times and low costs for its customers.
Marketing commentary on American Packaging
Headquartered in Columbus, Wisconsin, American Packaging is a family-owned, flexible packaging solutions manufacturer established by two families, namely the Kardon and the Schottland families, in 1902. The Schottland family bought the company from the Kardon family in 1986.
In addition to the new facility, American Packaging operates five Centres of Excellence in the US across Wisconsin, New York and Iowa, with a workforce of approximately 1,200 people.
