For Georgia-Pacific, a New $425MM Tennessee Plant (UPDATED)

Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
Dec. 9, 2022 groundbreaking of the new Dixie facility in Jackson, Tenn. Pictured: Jeff Fleck (GP), Scott Conger – Jackson Mayor, Mike Cook (GP), Kyle Spurgeon – President/CEO, Greater Jackson Chamber, Carrie Shapiro – VP of Dixie® Manufacturing, Bill Lee – Tennessee Governor, Nate Smiga (GP), Stuart McWhorter – Commissioner, Tennessee Economic and Community Development, Andrew Noble (GP), AJ Massey – Madison County Mayor. (Caption and Photograph Courtesy of Georgia-Pacific)

Dec. 9, 2022 groundbreaking of the new Dixie facility in Jackson, Tenn. Pictured: Jeff Fleck (GP), Scott Conger – Jackson Mayor, Mike Cook (GP), Kyle Spurgeon – President/CEO, Greater Jackson Chamber, Carrie Shapiro – VP of Dixie® Manufacturing, Bill Lee – Tennessee Governor, Nate Smiga (GP), Stuart McWhorter – Commissioner, Tennessee Economic and Community Development, Andrew Noble (GP), AJ Massey – Madison County Mayor. (Caption and Photograph Courtesy of Georgia-Pacific)

Georgia-Pacific is investing more than $425 million in a new Dixie® paper products plant in Jackson, Tenn., to be served by CSX.

The company on Sept. 26 reported that it had chosen the 241-acre property—designated as both a CSX Select Site and a Select Tennessee Certified Site—for its 900,000-square-foot facility. It is located along Highway 223, just off Interstate 40 west of Jackson. A groundbreaking ceremony was held Dec. 9, and Georgia-Pacific expects the facility to begin producing tableware products, including the Dixie® and Dixie Ultra® lines of plates and bowls, in summer 2024. The company said more than 200 people will be employed at the fully air-conditioned workspace, which will include a printer, associated plate forming converting assets, and other manufacturing technology; recruitment, hiring and training will begin in 2023. Georgia-Pacific directly employs approximately 460 people and operates six facilities in Tennessee.

Printed paperboard is fed into plate formers to produce Dixie® plates and bowls. (Caption and Photograph Courtesy of Georgia-Pacific)
CSX wrote in a Dec. 14 LinkedIn post that it “joined Georgia-Pacific last week to celebrate the groundbreaking of their new Dixie paper products facility at the Highway 223 East CSX Select Site in Tennessee. A group of CSX Sales & Marketing team members attended the event including Tom Tisa, Head of Business Development; Kellen Riley, Director of Business Development South Region; Rashard Howard, Senior Manager of Business Development; and Gideon Jenkins, Senior Sales Manager for Paper and Forest.” (Photograph Courtesy of CSX via LinkedIn)

“Although we have invested to expand existing sites, this is the first new Dixie® plant the company has built since 1991,” said Fernando Gonzalez, President of the Consumer Business at Georgia-Pacific, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, Inc. “This added capacity will help us meet the needs of our customers as consumer demand for high-quality, durable paper plates and bowls continues to grow.” 

“CSX is excited to further our long-standing partnership with Georgia-Pacific by providing efficient rail transportation solutions to support their growing consumable paper products business,” said Tom Tisa, head of Business Development at CSX. “The CSX Select Site in Jackson is a construction-ready location and is perfectly positioned to leverage the sustainable benefits of our rail network, enabling Georgia-Pacific to get paper goods to shelves across the region more competitively.”

“We are proud that Georgia-Pacific found its home in Jackson on one of our state’s Select Tennessee Certified Sites, and we thank our partners at CSX who helped to make this site ready for this significant economic development win,” Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Stuart McWhorter said.

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