Georgia-Pacific and its subsidiaries are among the world's leading manufacturers and marketers of bath tissue, paper towels and napkins, tableware, paper-based packaging, cellulose, specialty fibers, and building products. Its familiar consumer brands include Quilted Northern®, Angel Soft®, Brawny®, Dixie®, enMotion®, Sparkle®, and Vanity Fair®. The company operates more than 150 facilities and employs approximately 30,000 people directly and creates more than 89,000 jobs indirectly.
The Need
In 2021, Global Location Strategies was commissioned by Georgia-Pacific, a privately owned subsidiary of Koch Industries, to identify a location to grow its manufacturing operations for Dixie® and Dixie Ultra® lines of plates and bowls.
The Solution
The GLS team worked with the company to evaluate 18 sites across Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The focus then narrowed to four sites across three states. The search was driven primarily by workforce and logistics considerations. During the evaluation, due to the client’s strong interest in a particular location, GLS worked with the community to develop a site suitable for the project. Although this site was not selected, it was in the final two. In the end, workforce became the deciding factor, specifically availability, turnover, quality, work culture, and labor costs.
In September 2022, following the intensive site search, Georgia-Pacific announced its intention to locate its next Dixie® manufacturing facility in Jackson, Tennessee was ultimately selected. Construction is slated to begin in Winter 2022 with production beginning in Summer 2024.