Sofidel www.sofidel.com, a large paper group in Lucca, Italy, has announced a new greenfield investment in the United States for the construction of an integrated factory, in Inola, in the state of Oklahoma, about 50 km from the city of Tulsa. Thanks to its central position in the country, the area is well served from a logistical point of view, guaranteeing good energy sources and competitive prices and a workforce fit for the needs of the industry.
«I am pleased to announce this new investment, the second in America after that of Circleville, in Ohio», declared Luigi Lazzareschi, managing director of the Sofidel Group.«The new investment has come about in order to significantly support our growth in the United States, one of the crucial markets for our Group. In Inola we shall build an avant-garde integrated factory to serve the centre-south and centre-west of the United States, a market in which we have been present since 2012 and where we have grown rapidly year after year».
The investment for the creation of an integrated factory, which includes, namely, the paper mill stage as well as that of paper converting which leads to the finished product, requires the installation of two paper mill machines for an overall production of 120 thousand tonnes a year, with the related converting lines. One of the two machines will be mainly dedicated to the production of toilet paper, whilst the second one will mainly make kitchen rolls. The overall investment will be about 360 million dollars over three years (2018-2019-2020). The construction of the building will start in March 2018 and the factory will be completed by the middle of 2020, whilst the converting production lines and the warehouse will be operational by the middle of 2019.
The new factory, once fully operational, will employ 300 workers full-time.