Georgia-Pacific to expand Fletcher operations

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  • A dozen new jobs will be created in Fletcher
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About a dozen new jobs will be created in Fletcher after expansion of Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific’s gypsum plant is complete sometime next year, company officials confirmed Tuesday.

The expansion is set to begin in January and should be complete by the end of March 2022, Georgia-Pacific Public Affairs Manager Yana Ogletree said Tuesday by phone. Ogletree was unaware whether the new jobs would be exported from Georgia-Pacific’s Quanah, Texas, plant. The Quanah plant is expected be shut down over the next few years, depending on future market conditions. A new, $285 million state-of-the-art plant in Sweetwater, Texas, will replace the Quanah facility.

GP officials will release further details and cost projections on the Fletcher plant’s expansion closer to the project’s scheduled start date. Currently, the Fletcher plant employs 109 people, Ogletree said.

“We’re still pretty far out with this project but we’ll have more details as we move forward,” Ogletree said.

GP’s Fletcher facility was selected to produce the company’s DensGlass product expressly because of the facility’s ability to produce the product at a lower cost, Ogletree said. The Fletcher plant was originally created to manufacture gypsum products used in home and commercial construction.

Georgia-Pacific’s Muskogee plant manufactures tissue products.

Georgia-Pacific employs 910 people in Oklahoma, and pays wages and benefits totaling $65 million annually to those workers. Since 2013, Georgia-Pacific has made capital investments and acquisitions totaling $331 million in the state.

Fletcher Mayor Dick Herrin said GP’s plant expansion and the accompanying new jobs was, “Okay.”

“100 (jobs) is a really cool deal, but (12) is OK,” Herrin said.

Herrin said most of the plant’s employees live outside Fletcher’s city limits, so the expansion won’t substantially increase Fletcher’s sales tax revenue or most other revenue sources, such as gas or electricity franchise taxes.

“Most of the employees there drive 50- to 75-miles to come work here,” Herrin said.

In years past, Fletcher has attempted to annex the land where GP’s plant is currently located. However, Herrin said, the town has made no attempt to annex the land since Georgia-Pacific purchased the plant.