South Hutchinson box plant in midst of $3.5 million upgrade

A $3.5 million expansion at a corrugated-box manufacturing company in South Hutchinson will take the plant “from the stone-age to high-tech,” said Tony Schleich, president of the local plant.

Construction of a 6,000-square-foot expansion onto the existing 50,000-square-foot American Packaging plant at 400 W. Blanchard Rd., is expected to be completed within a couple of weeks, Schleich said.

“It’s all closed in and we’re only a couple of weeks away from having it all wired and lighted,” said Justin Hill, Jr., president of the plant’s parent, Lawrence Paper Company.

The plant will then be ready for delivery of the new multi-million-dollar high-tech equipment, which is now anticipated to arrive in January.

“We’re going from manually pushing carts with material around the plant to a fully-automated conveyor-system,” Schleich said. “The speed of the equipment itself is about 25 percent faster.”

The expansion and equipment upgrade won’t result in any new jobs at the plant, which currently employs 43, but will “ultimately make the existing jobs more secure,” Hill said.

“By automating things, it makes us more efficient so that we can be more competitive in the marketplace,” he said.

American Packaging was founded in South Hutchinson in 1987 by Dave Claxton. Lawrence Paper bought the facility in 2012.

They broke ground on the expansion, the most significant upgrade since the plant was sold, in June.