Dec 26, 2014 2 min read

Lower electric rates and increased customer demand in the Southeast drew Washington County-based Audia International to Georgia for its latest manufacturing project, its director of corporate development said this week.

Todd Gummersbach said he sought a new location to produce plastics up and down the East Coast, but ultimately ended up in LaFayette, Ga., where the privately held company is building a $50 million, 240,000 square-foot plastics manufacturing plant.

It will support Audia’s three subsidiaries: Arden-based Washington Penn Plastic Co. Inc., Uniform Color Co. in Holland, Mich., and Atlanta-based Southern Polymer Inc.

The units serve the automotive, appliance, construction, consumer products and packaging industries.

While the abundant output of natural gas from Marcellus Shale is lowering heating costs in Western Pennsylvania, Gummersbach said natural gas costs don’t have a big impact on Audia’s Washington Penn Plastic operations.

He said electric rates were lower and more transparent in the Southeast.

“We’re hoping it’s something that can be addressed here,” he said.

Audia’s latest project comes at a time when the plastics industry is responding to increased demand in an improving U.S. economy.

On Dec. 1, SPI, the plastics industry trade association, noted in its 2014 Global Business Trends report that domestic demand for plastics industry goods grew 6.5 percent, from $251 billion in 2012 to $267 billion in 2013. The previous high was $262.6 billion in 2006.

According to Gummersbach, the major challenges to the new plant’s location were energy and rail to reach the growing customer base south of here.

“We had to follow our customers,” he said.

The plant, which received Walker County, Ga.’s, economic development award for mid-sized companies, is expected to begin production in the third quarter of 2015.

Washington Penn Plastic has also been on the move this year. In June, it reached an agreement with ExxonMobil Chemical Co. to purchase and license assets of EMC’s North American specialty compounded polypropylene products business. That followed EMC’s decision to cease production of those products in North America.

Gummersbach said the potential for one or two proposed ethane crackers – and their ability to grow both plastics and chemical manufacturing in the tri-state area – wouldn’t impact Washington Penn Plastic’s operations. But he added Audia is optimistic the crackers will be green-lighted for the area.

“We hope it happens because we think it’s good for the area,” he said.