KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? Global soap manufacturer VVF Limited is turning a Colgate plant that is closing into a soap factory.

The company will pay $12 million for the 105-year-old building and its equipment, plus another $6 million to upgrade the plant over the next three years, said Mike Taylor, spokesman for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan.

Company officials said the site also will serve as VVF’s North American manufacturing headquarters.

VVF produces soaps and shampoos for hotels and makes products for Johnson and Johnson, Amway and Pfizer. Founded in India in 1939, it operates seven plants in India, two in the United Arab Emirates and one in Canada. It began exporting to North America in the early 1990s.

Colgate plans to close the plant, which has been in existence since the early 1900s and is one of Colgate’s oldest, later this year. About 240 people work there, making about 500 million bars of soap a year. In December 2004, Colgate announced plans to cut 12 percent of its total work force – about 4,450 jobs – and close about one-third of its factories.

VVF expects to reopen the Colgate plant in the first quarter of 2007 with up to 60 workers on the payroll. Employment at the plant is projected to increase 10 percent to 15 percent a year. VVF estimates the average salary will be around $35,000 a year.

The company chose the plant over sites in Arizona, Texas and Canada.