LITTLE ROCK — Rexam, a consumer packaging company, will add at least 150 jobs at its Hot Springs plant by the end of the year, the London-based firm said Wednesday.
Rexam makes plastic jars and caps in Hot Springs, where it has 250 employees. The plant is part of Rexam’s international plastics business, which has more than 40 plants and employs more than 13,000.
Rexam already is in the process of hiring the 150 workers, in manufacturing and supervisory positions. Greg Brooke, a spokesman for Rexam, said that pay for the new positions “will be at the upper tier of the industry average for the area.”
In the fourth quarter of 2009, the average weekly manufacturing wage in Garland County was $760, or about $19 an hour for a 40-hour week, according to the state Department of Workforce Services.For the state, manufacturing workers earned an average of $608 a week, or $15.20 an hour.
Brooke said the company was not expanding the plant but enhancing its technology and adding to its product lines. Rexam provides products for the health-care, food and beverage, beauty, industrial and automotive markets.
Malcolm Harrison, group director for Rexam Plastic Packaging, said in a prepared statement that work at the Hot Springs plant will be expanded because the company is consolidating its operations.
“This expansion shows our commitment to supporting customer growth by building on our existing efficient high-quality operations and continuing our focus on delivering world-class quality products and services to our customers,” Harrison said in the statement.
Brooke said the company chose to expand at the Hot Springs plant because “where we place our manufacturing and invest in our operations is where the market growth and our customers are.”
Gov. Mike Beebe said at a ceremony outside Rexam’s Hot Springs plant that the expansion is a “vote of confidence in Hot Springs.”
With the additional employees, Rexam will be one of the top 10 employers in the Hot Springs area, said Kay Brockwell, the director of business recruitment and retention for the Hot Springs Metro Partnership.
“It’s a huge boost, and we’re very, very pleased,” Brockwell said. The Metro Partnership began working with Rexam on the expansion of operations last fall.
Garner Economics, an Atlanta-based firm, said employment in the area has held up well in recent years, with a gain of about 140 jobs in 2009 from companies with which the Metro Partnership worked. A March report produced by Garner cited Hot Springs as one of only eight metro areas that saw net job growth in the last four months of 2009.
Information for this article was contributed by David Smith of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Business, Pages 25 on 06/24/2010