“We believe this facility will be the future of our industry,” said owner-chairman Anthony Pratt, noting it would not only convert 100% recycled paper but also use advanced water reclamation technology.
“It will be one of the most environmentally-friendly corrugated plants in the USA. Paper converted here will save as many as 10,000 trees a day and it will discharge up to 50% less water into the local sewer system.”
The new factory will be Pratt’s 4th facility in Ohio, and together they represent an investment of more than $100 million. The company already employs more than 400 people in Ohio, and that total will climb to almost 550 when the new plant reaches capacity.
Work on the $260 million paper mill project will begin in March, 2014, and is expected to take 16 months. It will be sited on a 50-acre site about 50 miles south of Chicago, adjacent to Pratt’s box-making plant in Valparaiso, Indiana.
Pratt Industries has grown from the 46th largest box producer in the U.S. to the 5th largest with more than 70 facilities across the country and remains the only major corrugated producer in America to use only 100% recycled paper.
