Procter & Gamble a steady employer

~ Equipment upgrades ongoing

Although no major expansions are planned at Procter & Gamble Paper Products Co. in north Cape Girardeau County, employment remains steady at about 1,200 workers, and the company payroll continues to exceed $89.4 million a year, according to Human Resource manager Mike Jennewein.

The last major upgrade at the plant was in 2000 when a $350 million expansion resulted in the addition of a tissue and towel production facility. Two paper machines and associated converting and utilities equipment were installed in the facility. Paper from these machines is converted into Bounty paper towels and Charmin toilet tissue for shipment to trade customers.

Jennewein said a 2004 expansion added a third paper machine. "We built another building for that third machine operation," he said. "The machines take bulk and turn it into Bounty or Charmin substrates, then we convert the product into consumer packages."

The plant runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, said Jennewein, adding that most employees are from Cape Girardeau County and neighboring counties, including some in Illinois.

With no major expansions slated, that doesn't mean P&G isn't growing.

"We continue to get more and more productive and therefore more competitive," said Jennewein. "We also continue to ship more and more product out of the plant."

P&G could be considered two businesses in one. Equipment and employees are focused on baby-care products -- Pampers and Luvs disposable diapers -- and family-care products, which includes the Bounty and Charmin brands.

Jennewein refuted a rumor that a baby wipes plant planned to relocate there.

"There is no baby wipes plant here. If there's a rumor that there is, that's wrong," he said, adding that Procter & Gamble Co. owns a baby wipes plant in Delaware, but it is not going to relocate here.

Jennewein said future relocation of businesses to the P&G area are not out of the question. He said company officials continually talk to P&G suppliers about relocating near the plant, which is 15 miles north of Cape Girardeau at the junction of Highway 177 and Route J. The plant is on a 1,225-acre site north of Trail of Tears State Park and near the Mississippi River.

"If a business agrees to relocate near us, that company will let me know," said Jennewein, adding that company officials have been talking with a supplier of corrugated boxes that is looking for land, but that supplier could end up in Tennessee or elsewhere. "They haven't gone public with any announcement."

There is a cluster of businesses nearby the P&G plant, and Jennewein said the plant is "a kind of magnet." Nordenia USA is one of the company's raw materials suppliers -- it sells bags to P&G and many other customers. P&G leases space at a nearby warehouse, and QPI does some special packing and repacking for P&G as well as some machining in its machine shop.

P&G also has a business relationship with nearby DGI Trucking, a long-haul freight and trucking company. Vice president Russ Green said the company delivers P&G products to many states in the Midwest and also to Texas.

"We send several hundred trucks a week to Procter and Gamble to load up," said Green. "They are a good business partner, and we've been doing this since 1983."

Green said trucks often return with raw material that is delivered to P&G.

P&G also transports products via a railroad track that enters the warehouse in addition to 200 to 250 (outbound and inbound) trucks per day at the site and warehouse facilities. There are paved parking areas and entrance roads, and the grounds around the plant buildings have sculptured landscaping with lawn, trees and shrubs.

"We do have a lawn service that keeps up the appearance," said Jennewein. "Inside we continually improve our products and ship more out. Equipment upgrades are constant and happen every year. Our converting equipment is proprietary."

Other businesses in the area include Duckett Truck Center, which repairs trucks and trailers; Midway, a fuel and convenience store that also sells hot food; and DW Tool/Wahlco, a manufacturer of precision parts and vacuum molds.

Farther west on Highway 177, going toward Fruitland, are The Lil Country Store, a fuel and food outlet; Lynn Flexo Supply, which deals in ink and laser-jet cartridges; Fast Fuel Truck Stop; Continental Waste Industries, which handles hazardous waste; The Bayou Bar & Grill; and Smith's Auto Body.