DS Smith plans to build a 550,000-sq-ft facility in Lebanon, Indiana, about 29 miles northwest of Indianapolis, and expects to hire 140 full-time employees. The company estimates it will spend more than $31 million for the land and the building and another $75 million for equipment. Construction is expected to begin in November 2018 and employees will be hired beginning in November 2019, with plans to reach full employment by December 2020, according to local media reports.
DS Smith entered the U.S. market in June 2017 by acquiring Interstate Resources for $1.14 billion. The purchase gave DS Smith 19 production sites in the United States.Its U.S. headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia.
In a pre-close trading statement conference call on November 6, Miles Roberts, Group Chief Executive, responded to a question about the new Indiana plant. “Since entering the U.S., we’ve had absolutely tremendous demand from our customers,” he said. “We’ve had a fabulous reception from [Indiana]. It brings some jobs to an area where we’re seeing our customers grow quite rapidly, but most importantly, they want performance-based packaging…for on-shelf display. It’s using our existing technology in Europe. We couldn’t find somebody to buy in that region with the technology that we need, so we’re really quite excited about that, really building on the success of the Interstate acquisition.”
