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Procter & Gamble groundbreaking ‘exciting day’ for West Virginia

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Hundreds of people could be working at Procter & Gamble’s planned $500 million manufacturing facility in Berkeley County within the next two years. On Friday, a groundbreaking ceremony for the project was held at Martinsburg’s Tabler Station Business Park.

“It’s a very exciting day, not only for the Eastern Panhandle, but for the whole state for West Virginia — to be able to be here and to finally do the groundbreaking on this great project,” Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said. “For a single project, it’s probably the largest one we’ve had to date.”

Tomblin was a guest Friday’s MetroNews “Talkline” with Hoppy Kercheval which originated from the future P&G site in Berkeley County.

In all, plans call for more than 1,000,000 square feet of production space to be built on 458 acres. Multiple P&G brands will be manufactured in the planned consolidated plant, a different approach for P&G, though the exact products that will be made in Martinsburg were not immediately identified.

As many as 1,000 temporary jobs will be created during construction with 700 permanent positions created after production begins as soon as Fall 2017, according to Procter & Gamble officials.

“I don’t think they’ll stop at 700. I hope it’s more than that,” said U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

“This is going to have probably the largest economic impact of anything we’ve ever seen here in decades,” predicted Stephen Christian, executive director of the Berkeley County Economic Development Authority.

Keith Burdette, state secretary of commerce, agreed. “When they start hiring people, when they start literally building long-term roots in this community, it’s going to be a happy day,” Burdette said. “I think it has huge growth potential. I hope it has huge growth potential.”

Liz Fikes, director of engineering for Procter & Gamble, said the site selection team she led considered more than 70 locations for the manufacturing facility before choosing Martinsburg, what will be only the second new plant P&G has built in the U.S. since 1971.

Workforce was the biggest variable in the selection process, she said, followed by location, site specifics and government policies.

“We also want to know that we’re siting somewhere where we want our P&G families to live,” Fikes said. “There will be some people who move here with this project, either to lead the construction work or to actually be employees here, as well as can we attract and get enough workers here too that are going to enjoy working in this area.”

On Thursday night, P&G gave $30,000 to Blue Ridge Community and Technical College as an investment in worker training. The hiring process could begin before the close of the year.

Dirt is scheduled to start moving on the project before the end of October. After Friday’s groundbreaking, “It’s going to be even more exciting watching those big machines really move that dirt around and get the site ready,” Christian said.

With headquarters in Cincinnati, Oh., Procter & Gamble is a multinational manufacturer of personal care and household cleaning products along with laundry detergents, prescription drugs and disposable diapers.

P&G’s brands include Always, Bounty, Charmin, Crest, Dawn, Downy, Febreze, Gain, Gillette, Head and Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Old Spice, Oral-B, Pampers, Pantene, Swiffer, Tide and Vicks. The company’s largest product line is Pampers.

Plans for the Berkeley County site were first announced in February as the “next step” in Procter & Gamble’s redesign of the company’s North American supply chain. Currently, P&G’s U.S. operations include 29 plants in 21 other states.





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