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State and community leaders
were ecstatic last April when
Kimberly-Clark officials
announced plans to ramp up
production of Huggies ® diapers
and Pull-Ups ® training pants
during a groundbreaking
ceremony for a previously
announced tissue
manufacturing and packaging
facility.
That announcement meant
the local community and South
Carolina had even more to
celebrate in terms of jobs and
investment in new facilities.
According to Mill Manager
Tom Colgrove, the company is
using economies of scale by
moving toward fewer but larger
production sites.
For example, the popular
Huggies ® brand of disposable
diapers, currently being
manufactured at five locations,
will be produced at only three
by the end of the next 12
months.
One of those locations is the
Beech Island facility, where a
200,000-square-foot addition is
being built to handle the
expansion of baby and child
care products manufacturing.
At the same time,
construction is progressing on a
900,000-square-foot building to
house Kimberly-Clark’s stateof-the-art
toilet tissue
manufacturing process and a
78,000-square-foot warehouse.
The Beech Island facilities
produce the following products:
• Cottonelle ® and specialty
brands of toilet tissue,
• Kleenex ® facial tissue,
• Moist wipes in a number of
variations,
• Huggies ® disposable diapers
and Pull-Ups ® training pants.
Kimberly-Clark built its first
facility in South Carolina in
1968 with two tissue machines,
a couple of processing areas
and warehouse space.
The plant expanded in 1997
to accommodate a state-of-theart
toilet tissue manufacturing
process. Current expansions are
scheduled for completion by the
summer of 2007.
To meet the needs of what
will become its largest North
American manufacturing
facility, Kimberly-Clark had
three basic requirements,
including:
• An available work force
• Affordable, reliable energy
• A good business climate with
support from local and state
governments.
Beech Island was a winner
on all three fronts. Colgrove
anticipates plenty of qualified
applicants for the new positions
that will become available. The
company recently received
1,000 applications to fill 17
positions.
“We have developed a track
record of excellent results over
38 years with very low
turnover,” he said. “We are
fortunate to have a good
reputation in the community.
We get a lot of applicants when
we go to hire.”
The Beech Island facility runs
24 hours a day, seven days a
week and must have reliable
energy to do so.
“Kimberly-Clark could have
gone to other sites. One reason
they chose this one is because
we have cost efficient, reliable,
high quality energy,” Colgrove
said.
“I’ve worked at a number of
other locations. The reliability
here is terrific. It’s better than
any other locations where I
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SCANA Insights