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McCrory businessmen lure jobs back to Delta town Tuesday, Oct 31, 2006 By Jason Wiest Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Three years after the American Greetings distribution plant - and more than 300 jobs - left the small Delta town of McCrory, local business leaders who bought the building announced Monday that they have a replacement. California-based Calpaco Papers Inc. will upgrade the 770,000-square-foot production plant where it will convert large rolls of paper into sheets and smaller rolls. The products will then be sold to commercial printers, printing brokers and other paper merchants for resale. After three years in McCrory, Calpaco expects to employ 250-300 people, nearly as many as American Greetings did. Depending on skill level, workers will earn between $8 and $15 an hour, the company said Monday. McCrory, population 1,850, is located on U.S. 64 in Woodruff County, about 85 miles northeast of Little Rock and 75 miles west of Memphis, Tenn. When the card company left, hundreds within a 30-mile radius of McCrory lost jobs. Local businessmen Noel Lawhon of Lawhon Farm Services Inc. and Tony Bull, owner of Bull Motor Co., feared the jobs might never return, said Mike Osier, director of operations for Lawhon Farm Services. If the building was put on the auction block, the buyer could turn it into a warehouse, fill it with product, hire a security guard, "and that's all the employment that would be there," Osier said. The long-term job loss potentially could have devastated the small town's economy, he said. "We're like many Delta towns. We're primarily agriculture driven and agriculture flexes up and down," Osier said. "It effects your economy very positively or negatively depending on the markets. We needed a business partner to help support our agriculture economics." So Lawhon and Bull, both McCrory natives, joined to form Heartland Management LLC, bought the building and marketed the site. Heartland got offers from companies that wanted to do exactly what the pair feared, Osier said. But less than a year after buying the building, Heartland was in contact with Calpaco. Headquartered in Mira Loma, Calif., Calpaco Papers Inc. has been in business in the Los Angeles area - where it employs about 90 people - since 1969, and in Church Hill, Tenn. - where it employs more than 45 people - for about a year. Employment is expected to increase to 200 to 300 in Tennessee and, coupled with the Arkansas announcement, is a reflection of Calpaco's expansion, Osier said. Calpaco CEO Paul Maier could not be reached for comment, but said in a prepared statement that the McCrory location is an ideal solution for the company's expansion and operations. "The close proximity to the Memphis, Tenn., container yard allows Calpaco to service the California market in a cost-effective manner," he said. "The container freight rate is extremely favorable and will enable Calpaco to enjoy lower costs of production, warehousing and insurance, while maintaining a lower cost of transportation, as well." Raw paper rolls brought to the site from mills in southern Arkansas will processed in McCrory and shipped to the West Coast and China. The McCrory site also will warehouse products that come from China and the West Coast before they're distributed, according to Osier. A $2.5 million railroad spur connecting the site to the Union Pacific line is planned. The city is paying for construction of about 6,000 feet of rail, and has received a $1 million Community Development Block Grant from the Arkansas Department of Economic Development to help cover costs. Officials are seeking grants from the Delta Regional Authority, Economic Development Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture to cover the rest of the cost, Osier said. "This is a great example of a town that has come together to create the atmosphere for economic success," said Mitch Chandler, spokesman for the state economic office. "These business people who joined together and purchased this facility to create jobs in their community are truly pillars of their community." |
