Glatfelter, a global manufacturer of specialty papers and fiber-based engineered materials, has announced that it will locate it previously announced new airlaid line at a new manufacturing facility in Fort Smith, AR, subject to the approval of the Fort Smith board of directors and closing on the purchase of the former Mitsubishi Power Systems building located in Chaffee Crossing.

Glatfelter will create up to 83 highly-skilled manufacturing jobs at the new facility with a total capital investment of approximately $80 million. In December, Glatfelter announced it would build a new airlaid line in the southern U.S. to primarily meet unmet demand in North America for lighter weight hygiene and disposable wipes products.

“We are truly excited to partner with the people of Fort Smith and Arkansas because we know that investing here makes great business sense for our company,” says Chris Astley, president of Glatfelter’s Advanced Airlaid Materials Business Unit and a senior vice president of Glatfelter.  “Locating here benefits our business in a number of ways. It will enable us to expand our capacity to meet our customers’ growing demand for our advanced airlaid products, provide us with closer proximity to key suppliers and customers, and link us to highly efficient transportation routes across the South.  Equally important, it will allow us to tap into the area’s high-quality workforce.”

In addition to the new Fort Smith facility, Glatfelter has 12 production facilities located across the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K. and the Philippines. The company, headquartered in York, PA, employs more than 4300 people worldwide. In December, Glatfelter said the new line would have an initial annual capacity of about 22,000 short tons, bringing its global airlaid capacity to about 129,000 short tones.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson joined local and company leaders at the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce for today’s announcement. “Glatfelter is a world-class company that is making a significant investment in Fort Smith while creating jobs that will improve the lives of many area families,” says Gov. Hutchinson. “We appreciate Glatfelter’s decision to locate in Arkansas and are proud to add Glatfelter to the growing list of manufacturers that are choosing to do business in the state.”

Glatfelter’s products range from highly technical substrates for products like tea bags, single-serve coffee filters, wipes applications, feminine hygiene products, nonwoven wallcoverings and energy storage, to repositionable notes, greeting cards, high-speed inkjet printing papers, high-quality book publishing papers and envelopes.

Glatfelter expects to bring the facility on line in late 2017.