DHL, Graphic Packaging to Invest $274M in Louisiana Plants

By Evelina Croitoru

Graphic Packaging International – West Monroe Beverage Plant

Graphic Packaging International Inc. teamed up with DHL Supply Chain to develop a 1.27-million–square-foot folding carton plant and logistics center in Monroe, La. The companies will undertake a combined $154 million capital investment to develop the new facility, which will create 93 direct jobs.

The firms selected the 726-acre Millhaven Road property, adjacent to the Kansas City Southern Railroad and the north side of Interstate 20. Additionally, the property is located roughly two miles east of Monroe Regional Airport. DHL is the developer of the new property that will include a 793,000-square-foot distribution facility and a 480,000-square-foot carton converting facility.

Graphic Packaging will relocate carton production from the company’s two existing sites in West Monroe to the new Monroe facility. The firm will continue to employ more than 800 people in its West Monroe mills and in the new combined folding carton plant. The company will reinvest in its paper manufacturing locations, by upgrading the mill’s paper machines. The West Monroe operations will supply paperboard for the new packaging and logistics center in Monroe.

Graphic Packaging International’s existing facility at 204 Exchange St. in West Monroe, La.

Besides the $120 million investment to the West Monroe mill, Graphic Packaging will also pump $70 million into the new folding carton plant equipment for the converting site in Monroe. DHL will construct the building and the adjoining distribution center, investing more than $84 million into the new development.

To secure the project, the State of Louisiana offered the companies a competitive incentive package including a $3 million Modernization Tax Credit, payable in five annual installments.

Images via Google Maps