Dalton, Georgia, USA 27 January 2016 -- (From the Chattanooga Times Free Press) -- A North Carolina company plans to open a new manufacturing facility outside Dalton, Ga., late this summer and hire more than 60 people in the first year to make corrugated sheets used in boxes.

Sustainable Corrugated, a subsidiary of Jackson Paper Manufacturing Co. in Sylva, N.C., will invest $15 million in new machinery and inventory, said Scott Price, the company's general manager, on Tuesday.

Also, an investor is spending from $5 million to $7 million to build a 150,000-square-foot facility to house the company on Five Springs Road in south Whitfield County, Price said.

Sustainable Corrugated will use recycled paper as a raw material in making new corrugated sheets. The operation will serve independent box makers throughout North Georgia, East Tennessee and North Alabama.

"The Chattanooga area attracted us because of lack of competition in our niche," Price said.

Whitfield County Commission Chairman Mike Babb said the company will help diversify the economy and complement some existing businesses.

He said the jobs will pay in the $15- to $19-per-hour range.

Carl Campbell, the Dalton-Whitfield County Joint Development Authority's executive director, said site work for the building is already underway.

"It's a company growing their business," he said. "They're not moving it."

Campbell said the company plans to start with first and second shifts and work in a third in six to nine months after production starts. He expects a hiring event for the business in early spring, though some jobs are already on the Georgia Department of Labor website.

Sustainable Corrigated is receiving Quick Start training aid from the state and tax abatement locally, Campbell said.

Price said the company looked at an older existing downtown Chattanooga building, but that site didn't suit its purposes as well as the Whitfield facility that the business will lease.

"We need a specialized building with extra thick floors" to handle the weight of paper and trucks to move it, he said.

Price said the company did its homework looking for the expansion outside of North Carolina. Companies in the Chattanooga area have been buying paper from big manufacturers and box makers such as WestRock, Georgia-Pacific and International Paper, he said.

But firms need an independent supplier such as Sustainable Corrigated, Price said.

"We found the best opportunity for us is in the Chattanooga area," he said.

Price said the U.S.-made equipment to be installed in the Whitfield plant is "state of the art, top of the line," capable of producing 1,000 feet per minute.

"It's all very just-in-time inventory," he said. "The sheet plant will be a critical supplier."

He said that Jackson Paper Manufacturing Co. employs about 125 people in Sylva in Western North Carolina.

Sustainable Corrugated will use recycled paper from Sylva in making new corrugated sheets. The paper is made entirely from used brown boxes, diverting more than 120,000 tons from landfills, according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development.