Longview Manufacturer INDEVCO Plastics Gets Accelerated LEDCO Incentive

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Contact: Jimmy Isaac
Email: jisaac@news-journal.com

Longview Manufacturer Indevco Plastics Gets Accelerated LEDCO Incentive

A better-than-anticipated start for INDEVCO Plastics has earned the employer a cash advance from the Longview Economic Development Corp. with the green light to ask for more job-creating help.

LEDCO directors on Wednesday also approved a $5.05 million 2017-18 budget.

LEDCO agreed to end INDEVCO‘s four-year incentive package a year early after it exceeded its goals inalmost half the time. In exchange for reaching 58 jobs created in Longview and $18.9 million invested into its operation on Jordan Valley Road, LEDCO paid off the 2015 incentive deal that called for INDEVCO creating 18 jobs and investing $13.2 million by 2019.

The manufacturer based in Lebanon said in April that it wants to embark on a $15 million-plus expansion that would create up to 24 new jobs in Longview.

LEDCO President and CEO Wayne Mansfield said Wednesday’s accelerated payment opens the door for INDEVCO to ask for a new incentive package for that expansion, although no timetable for the request has been announced.

“They requested to move the performance agreement to three years and receive the final two $150,000 payments in order to close the current performance agreement in anticipation of requesting a new performance agreement based on their proposed expansion,” Mansfield said.

INDEVCO manufactures plastic film for the packing industry.

The privately owned INDEVCO Group employs 10,250 people in manufacturing plants in the U.S., Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Greece, Ghana, Iraq and Cyprus, according to officials.

Meanwhile, the LEDCO budget approved Wednesday includes $4.99 million in revenue from the city of Longview and $60,000 in general fund interest.

It provides for 3 percent cost-of-living increases for LEDCO staff and adds an office manager at a salary of $45,000 a year.

Directors will appropriate $2.9 million from LEDCO’s fund balance to cover capital projects requested by Mansfield, including construction of a spec building and some site work at the agency’s business parks.

The agency budgeted half of the spec building’s construction costs in 2018 and plan to pay the balance in 2019, board treasurer Natalie Lynch said.

“This mirrors what was presented to us at our last special meeting with all of the recommendations that (Mansfield) had for us,” Lynch said of the budget.

LEDCO’s spending plan remains tentative until the City Council approves it in September.

About INDEVCO Plastics

After successfully supplying the US market with imported top-quality plastic film and packaging for seven years, INDEVCO Group established INDEVCO Plastics as a one-stop source for plastic packaging. INDEVCO Plastics leverages on the group’s 60 years of best practices in industrial manufacturing and experience supplying the petrochemical industry in over 40 countries.