Situated in Berkeley County, near the town of Tabler Station and in the Eastern Panhandle region, the company says that when the facility opens in 2017 it will become its 30th manufacturing plant across 21 states in the U.S and is only the second new site to be built in the country since 1971.
The plant should prove key to P&G’s revamped North American supply chain, and is all part of the company’s current global restructuring plan, aimed at enhancing manufacturing efficiencies and cutting back on operating costs.
A cost of $500m and 700 new jobs
Built at a cost of $500m, the facility will cover more than 100 million square feet and will produce multiple brands across all the categories the company is present in, including personal care.
It is also the first ever manufacturing facility the company has constructed in the state of West Virginia and will provide approximately 700 jobs for the local economy.
“This new plant will leverage economies of scale and standardized manufacturing platforms to P&G’s advantage by allowing us to produce multiple brands at one strategic location,” said Yannis Skoufalos, P&G’s Global Product Supply Officer.
Serving the Eastern part of the U.S.
The facility has also been strategically located to tap into supply chain efficiencies in that part of the US, including the close proximity of its new distribution center network, which includes large facilities in Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
This allows the company to focus on the densely populated Eastern half of the country, with the manufacturing and distribution network now able to reach 80% of this region’s population within one-day transit, Skoufalos claims.
P&G is currently undergoing a major restructuring as it attempts to put a stop to a long-term downward trend for its sales.
P&G pulling stoppers out in bid to halt sliding sales
Since 2012 the company has shed more than 10,000 jobs worldwide, in August last year it announced it was undergoing a major brand revamp that could see it sell up to 100 brands as it tries to focus on the more successful lines in its portfolio.
The company has also announced several high-level executive shuffles in recent months, most noteably appointing David Taylor to the position of head of beauty, a post some industry observers believe is lining him up for the top job.
Most recently, the company announced its second quarter results, ending December 2014, in which net sales were down 4% to $20.2bn, figures that were significantly impacted by negative currency translations.