The 500,000-square-foot DeSoto plant, idle in manufacturing since late 1995, should be producing frozen-dessert packaging again by year's end, company officials said.
Workers at Sealright Co. Inc.'s packaging plant in DeSoto could have another 125 co-workers by year's end.
Sealright, which already employs 220 at its 500,000-square-foot plant off Kansas Highway 10 in DeSoto, plans to move in 125 manufacturing jobs from a leased production plant in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., which will be closed by year's end.
Sealright -- North America's leading producer of packing for frozen desserts -- currently has no manufacturing operations under way in DeSoto, although the company has high-tech robotics equipment there that has been idle since December 1995.
The company plans to offer relocation assistance to many of its 150 soon-to-be-displaced employees in Wisconsin, but many jobs are expected to open up locally.
"We're just putting the plant back into full operations," said Carl Walker, Sealright's vice president of human relations, who discussed the "outstanding news" during a telephone interview from Wisconsin. "We look at Lawrence as a logical place to draw applicants from."
The available "high-skill" jobs will include those in sheeting, printing, handling, assembly and operations, Walker said.
The plant's current work force handles administration, marketing, research, development and equipment.
Sealright, with $200 million in annual sales, is a subsidiary of Huhtamaki Oy, a $1.2 billion Finnish confectionery and packaging company.
Rich Caplan, executive director of K-10 Assn. Inc., which promotes development along the K-10 corridor, said the company's decision would further strengthen DeSoto's diversifying economy and bolster its growing housing market.
"It's really an asset," Caplan said.
-- Mark Fagan's phone message number is 832-7188. His e-mail address is mfagan@ljworld.com.
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