News Room
Local plant to expand for storage
Article Source: The News-Gazette
CHAMPAIGN — A $2.4 million addition to the Silgan White Cap facility in Champaign will enable the container-lid manufacturer to store more materials in-house, the plant manager said.
Sam Finch said the plant in Interstate Research Park will add 71,620 square feet to the west side of its building this year, bringing the total size to 254,616 square feet.
“We hope to be done by the end of August,” depending on the weather, he said Thursday. A building permit was recently issued, and work on the addition is expected to begin in April.
The plant at 3209 Farber Drive, C, currently outsources storage to warehouses, and bringing the storage in-house should result in savings, Finch said.
Silgan White Cap employs 140 to 145 people in Champaign, and the new addition isn’t expected to result in many new jobs, he said. It’s possible the company will add one or two materials handlers.
The Champaign facility produces an average of 300 million lids a month, Finch said.
That includes plastic closures for sports drink bottles, as well as vacuum-seal lids for applesauce, salsa and juice containers, he said.
Silgan White Cap is based in Downers Grove and has plants in Champaign; Richmond, Ind.; Evansville, Ind.; Hazleton, Pa.; and Athens, Ga. The business is a worldwide supplier of metal, composite and plastic vacuum closures for food and beverage products.
Silgan White Cap’s parent company, Silgan Holdings, has 82 manufacturing plants in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, including a metal containers plant in Hoopeston.