Fortune 500 company to make $70 million expansion, create jobs in Johnston County
Manufacturing company Berry Global Inc. is investing $70 million in expanding its Benson plant, a project that will bring 63 new jobs to the town, Johnston County announced Monday.
The county board of commissioners and Benson town board unanimously approved performance-based economic incentives for Berry Global during a joint meeting Monday as part of a working agreement.
The international Fortune 500 company, headquartered in Evansville, Ind., makes plastic packaging and nonwoven fabrics, including disinfectant wipes. The company has been based in Benson since the 1960s and is the town’s largest private employer with more than 215 people working at its plant on 1206 Chicopee Road.
The new jobs, to be created by December 2023, will pay an average salary of nearly $45,000 a year with benefits. That’s higher than the Johnston County average individual income of about $30,000, officials said.
“Even in the dark cloud of a global pandemic, this announcement is due to the epitome of a great public-private partnership between a pro-business government and a tremendous corporate partner,” said county economic development Chris Johnson at Monday’s meeting.
Johnson said the economic incentives from the town and county are contingent on the return of Berry Global’s investment that is expected to increase public tax revenue.
Its expansion comes as demand for wipes for infection prevention surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, the county said in a news release.
“As we developed our plans to expand our manufacturing footprint... we considered multiple locations in-state and out-of-state,” said Paul Harmon, vice president of product development and marketing at Berry Global. “The incentives proposed played a very important art of our decision and for our final site selection. We genuinely appreciate the consideration and support for our investment.”
Incentive plan
The incentives will only be given upon the company’s new investment and the taxes paid on it.
The town’s “cascading” incentive grant will begin at a 50% rate and fall to 10% over seven years. It would provide Berry Global with $805,600 while keeping over $2.1 million, according to Johnson.
The county’s grant would begin at 90% and fall to 50% over seven years and provide approximately $3.5 million while the county keeps $2.3 million.
A study of Berry Global’s investment, once its expansion is operational, found that the return on investment would result in nearly $21.5 million annually for the county’s economy, according to an analysis by Dr. Michael Walden, a North Carolina State University economist, on behalf of the county.
The facility will add $71,116 in annual tax revenues to the Town of Benson and $160,872 to Johnston County, the county said in a news release.
Berry Global has a presence in North Carolina and employs 1,200 people at facilities in Ahoskie, Charlotte, Matthews, Mooresville, Rocky Mount and Statesville.
This story was originally published April 12, 2021 at 4:45 PM.
