Murray economic development leaders announced Monday an Illinois-based plastics company specializing in manufacturing fuel containers is investing $14.3 million dollars to create a new facility in Murray, creating 75 full-time jobs.
TPG Plastics is planning on moving within the next few months into a 62,000-square-foot spec building, completed in 2017 by the Murray-Calloway Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) to attract new businesses.
MCEDC President Mark Manning said the building was designed to face economic headwinds when the time came that manufacturing companies left Murray, referring specifically to the engine company Briggs and Stratton announcing in August it was closing its Murray plant and laying off 600 employees.
“When we built this building, it was because we knew this day was gonna come. It always does, whether it was a Briggs and Stratton or someone else,” Manning said. “We took a big step, a big risk to put this together.”
TPG Plastics will own the spec building after a 20-year lease from MCEDC. According to a press release from Governor Matt Bevin’s office, the company annually produces about 3 million fuel containers that are shipped nationwide. The company also manufactures oil drain pans and other automotive products.
TPG Plastics CEO Pavel Smyshlyaev said the company chose to locate to Murray because of the spec building, local resources including a hospital and university, and the people within the community.
“It was important to see a town where we could see ourselves relocating,” Smyshlyaev said. “Everybody went down here over the course of the next month, and their comment was ‘when?’”
He said the 75 full-time jobs offered by the company will include equipment operators, shift supervisors and potentially a staffed engineering department. Smyshlyaev said TPG Plastics was looking to expand to the southeastern United States after the company rebounded from economic struggles.
The private investment firm Smyshlyaev helps run, Beaconhouse Capital Management LLC, bought the company last year. He said Beaconhouse specializes in investing and recovering “distressed assets.”
TPG Plastics could receive up to $1 million in tax incentives from theKentucky Business Investment program if the company hits specific benchmarks including paying employees an average hourly wage of $27, with benefits.
