By Justin Schneider, Herald Bulletin Online Reporter/Manager
ANDERSON — An international business could bring its ever-growing green operation to Anderson in nine months’ time.
A five-person team from Variety Global Business (VGB) Group spent the past three days in Anderson, where the company is considering a manufacturing and distribution center.
John Pitre, CEO of VGB’s “starchware” division, said the company has accelerated its timeline and could be operational in Anderson in nine months. VGB has also expanded the scope of the project from 120-140 jobs to around 450 jobs.
“We’ve moved up our time frame because we’re talking about running two lines versus one line,” Pitre said, noting that the increased production will require more workers. “We have two types of starchware: tableware and industrial.”
VGB produces “starchware,” an alternative to plastic foam products such as Styrofoam, made from corn starch. Pitre said tableware is the kind used at a picnic, while industrial starchware is used for food packaging. VGB claims its starchware is 97.7 percent compostable, and breaks down in just 120 days in a landfill.
John Lin, who founded VGB in China in 2003, spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in central Indiana. He met with Economic Development Director Linda Dawson, Deputy Director Diana Priser and Mayor Kris Ockomon.
At a time when much U.S. manufacturing has moved to Asia, Lin said he wants to bring his Chinese company to Anderson because of the skilled work force and to bring his product closer to his customers.
“Logistically, it makes more sense,” said Lin. “To ship a big container from China to the United States costs $4,000. And business is more free in the United States. It’s more a free style.”
Dawson said city officials put VGB in contact with creative banking experts and an architectural firm. The city also explained Anderson’s foreign trade zones, which allow a company to bring in certain materials and manufacture them tax-free, as long as the product is then exported.
“A foreign trade zone is a designated area of the city that is like a foreign country,” Dawson said, noting that most of the former automotive plants have been designated as FTZs. “Plant 9, for example, is not in an FTZ, but if we have an area already designated as an FTZ, we have the ability to swap properties.”
Officials from VGB haves expressed interest in the former General Motors Corp. Plant 20, off 38th Street near Scatterfield Road. But Priser said Plant 9, across from the former Guide Corp. property near 38th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, is also being considered for short-term operations.
VGB can receive 37 percent tax credit on its federal liability through new market tax credits, Dawson said, and minority business funding could be available through the federal government.
Lin said VGB does $5 million to $6 million in sales annually in China. The company also has a manufacturing arm that produces its starchware-making machinery.
VGB says it may bring up to nine manufacturing centers in seven cities, including one still in the planning stages near Atlanta. But it plans to hire locally, and Anderson has the chance to became a training hub for the company.
“We have no trained work force,” Pitre said, noting that VGB’s Houston office is strictly executive offices. “We’ve already talked with the people at Ivy Tech (Community College) about training and even sending people from Atlanta up here.”
Contact Justin Schneider: 640-4809, justin.schneider@heraldbulletin.com
International interest
Officials from Variety Global Business (VGB) Group visited Anderson this week to meet with economic development officers and Mayor Kris Ockomon. The company is considering the city for a new manufacturing and distribution center in the Midwest. VGB produces “starchware, a biodegradable alternative to plastic foam, such as Styrofoam.
• VGB Group officials in Anderson: Founder John Ling, CEO John PItre, CFO Shelton Pitre, COO Keith Sullivan
