AUBURN, Maine — A Maine-based plastics company expects to add nearly 140 jobs over the next two years as a result of its parent company closing a manufacturing operation in South Carolina. State officials say Pioneer Plastics Corporation of Auburn is growing because Panolam Industries International is moving production to Maine.
"It's really about the future, it's building a flagship facility in Maine, we're very excited to add to the tremendous talent and competency and quality of equipment and it should really make for a terrific future for all of us," says Al Kabus, CEO and president at Panolam, which purchased Pioneer Plastics in 1999.
Panolam makes high pressure decorative laminates.
Kabus says the company expects to invest more than $1.7 million in the move, to help the position the Auburn facility — which already employs nearly 300 people — for long-term growth.
"We're also excited about the state and its welcoming thoughts and the way it's supporting us through the transition," he says of the tax breaks offered to Panolam by the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.
DECD Commissioner George Gervais says the company's expansion in Maine qualifies it for the so-called Pine Tree Zone economic incentive package.
"There are some tax incentives that put Maine in a better position from a tax perspective for business," Gervais says.
Those incentives include a 100 percent corporate income tax credit for any new activity in Maine — after five years, this drops to 50 percent for another five years. Gervais says Panolam also gets a sales tax exemption for equipment purchases related to the expansion, as well as an employment tax reimbursement for a portion of the new jobs being created. He says it's all part of the LePage administration's ongoing efforts to make Maine a more business-friendly state.
"Every step along the way I think we're starting to look at little more attractive and that's good news for the state of Maine," Gervais says.
Good news also for the Lewiston-Auburn area, which lost a lot manufacturing, and other jobs, during the recession.
"The new investment in Auburn facility and the jobs being created demonstrated the area's competitive advantage with its skilled manufacturing workforce capable of competing regionally and globally for quality performance and production," says Lucien B. Gosselin of the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council.
The quality of that local workforce, says Gosselin, is demonstrated by the fact that employment numbers in the area have now bounced back to exceed prerecession levels. In June for example, he points out that the jobless rate in Lewiston fell to 5.2 percent, which is below the state and national average.