Aug 19, 2009

Plastics plant to bring up to 200 jobs

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By: Brooke Edwards

Brooke Edwards - Victorville Daily Press

VICTORVILLE • When the new Dr Pepper Snapple Group bottling plant opens in another six or seven months, the company will need somewhere to put the more than 50 beverage brands it brews.

That’s where Plastipak Packaging, Inc. comes in, bringing as many as 200 jobs along with it.

The Michigan-based company is planning to open a site near Dr Pepper’s plant at Southern California Logistics Airport, where it may produce, store and distribute everything from 8-ounce water bottles to 3-liter soft drink containers.

“Plastipak is our largest supplier and they operate in many of the same cities as we do,” Greg Artkop, spokesman for Dr Pepper, wrote in an e-mail from Texas. “Victorville is one of the closet locations to one of our facilities.”

City spokeswoman Yvonne Hester said the company has submitted plans to takeover 230,000-square-feet of a warehouse that’s sat vacant on Sabre Street since it was built last year.

A report from Economic Development Director Keith Metzler states that Plastipak is expected to match the 200 jobs Dr Pepper is bringing to Victorville, for a total of 400 jobs coming to SCLA.

Plastipak’s Web site has Victorville listed as a future job site, though the company declined to comment on the new plant with details of the deal still in the works.