One of the US’ major PE film manufacturers, Poly-America (Grand Prairie, Texas / USA; www.poly-america.com), has announced plans to establish a production plant in Chester County, South Carolina. Operations will be under the name Carolina Poly. The announcement comes nine years after the development project was first approved by Chester County in 2006. Plans were put on hold because of the economic recession that began in 2008-2009.

The company will invest USD 100m to build a 44,000 m² facility on a 198-acre site. Operations are expected to start by mid-2017, and 300 new jobs will be created. Trent Mallory, Poly-America’s vice president of sales, said: “Carolina Poly will enable us to stay ahead of growing customer demand for our products and to realise logistical efficiencies in servicing our customers in the southeast and northeast.”

Chester County offered tax and financial incentives to attract the project which it said matched the skills of residents trained in the textile industry. A Rural Infrastructure Fund grant of USD 1.8m will help with the costs of property improvements as well as job development credits related to the greenfield project.

Poly-America is known for its “Husky” brand of plastic rubbish bags and liners, as well as its range of film and sheet for construction, shrink and industrial applications. The company has manufacturing plants in Cottage Grove / Minnesota, Mont Belvieu / Texas, and Henderson / Nevada.