Organization

High-tech packaging company to open in former Kaneka Texas plant

By Chris Gautz
Jackson Citizen Patriot
Tuesday, February 3, 2009

A high-tech packaging company plans to open next month in the former Kaneka Texas plant. Maverick Industries plans to hire about 90 people within five years, including some who previously worked at the facility at 4335 County Farm Road.

“We want these people back,” Maverick President Thomas Grace said.

Grace said his company will be one of the largest steam chest molding facilities in North America, designing and producing packaging solutions for a variety of high-growth industries.

The Michigan Economic Growth Authority board today was expected to approve a seven-year, $1.2 million high-technology employment tax credit for up to 90 new employees.

Michigan Economic Development Corp. spokeswoman Bridget Beckman said the company was considered for the credit “because of the number of well-paying jobs it will create, the benefits they will provide and the tremendous support of Blackman Township.”

Grace said once the tax credit is approved with state and local authorities he will work in earnest on the financing of the project and on finalizing deals with potential investors.

The company could be up and running in as little as six weeks, he said, and could initially employ about 30. Grace said customers are already lined up and waiting for him to open.

“We already have products we can start producing now,” he said.

Blackman Township Supervisor Robert Rando said he was excited about the jobs the company is bringing to the township. Rando said the township board will do whatever it takes to help the company and will approve the tax abatement as soon as its financing is in order.

The 90 jobs will have an average weekly wage of $806 and will offer health-care benefits.

Employees from Kaneka are preferred because they will be operating on many of the same machines they used when the automotive supplier occupied the building. Grace said they won’t be producing the same products as Kaneka, which made energy absorbers, the foam between the plastic and metal bumper pieces, for the automotive industry.

Maverick will specialize in using advanced materials not currently used in the packaging industry that are lightweight to reduce shipping costs, but stronger and completely recyclable.

The products will be used in a number of industries and markets including construction, agriculture, defense, biomedical, precision machine parts and automotive.

Grace, a member of the Jackson Citizen for Economic Growth, worked for 41 years at General Motors as a technology integration engineer. When Kaneka shut down operations last August, he was asked by the Enterprise Group, the county’s economic-development agency, to assist in finding an outside company to buy the building.

After looking at the facility and its potential, Grace said he decided to start his own company and buy the building.

“I thought, ‘Someone from Jackson could do this,’ “ he said.

Kaneka opened in Blackman Township in 2000. It closed last year due to the overall decline in the auto industry and the fact that the cost of the principal ingredient in the energy absorbers — petroleum — was soaring last summer.

Last April, the Japanese-based company employed about 50 and was down to about 25 shortly before it closed.

Grace said he is excited about the potential and to keep jobs in the area.

“It’s a shot in the arm. It’s been one step forward, and two steps back in Jackson for too long,” Grace said. “I want to reverse that.”

— Staff writer Keith Roberts contributed to this report.