Ohio Pack, Alene Candles development wins for western Licking County

Kent Mallett
Newark Advocate
Rod Harl, president of Alene Candles, greets attendees at Tuesday's groundbreaking event.

JOHNSTOWN – It was a big day for western Licking County, with two development wins that seemed unlikely a few years ago.

Ohio Pack, a manufacturer of flexible packaging for the food industry, celebrated on Tuesday the opening of a 130,000-square foot manufacturing facility in the former Thirty-One Gifts building at 231 Commerce St., Johnstown.

The company has 28 employees there now and expects 70 to 75 when fully operational, probably in a couple of years.

The same day, seven miles away, New Hampshire-based Alene Candles broke ground on a $30 million, 280,000-square foot warehouse a mile from its manufacturing facility in the New Albany Personal Care and Beauty Campus. Construction should be completed in mid-2020 on the southeast corner of Harrison Road and Innovation Campus Way.

Alene Candles anticipates creating 58 jobs, contributing $2.5 million in salaries to the local economy. The company has about 170 year-round employees in New Albany, but ramps up with seasonal employees to a peak of 500 this time every year, President Rod Harl said. Two-thirds of its candles sold are in the second half of the year, and 40 percent in the fourth quarter.

Ohio Pack

Two years ago, Ohio Pack purchased land in Heath and prepared to construct a 100,000-square foot building at the Central Ohio Aerospace and Technology Center, in Heath, for its blown plastic film production.

The company then abruptly changed course when the former Thirty-One Gifts building became available. Thirty-One Gifts, Johnstown's second-largest employer, moved the company to Columbus. Ohio Pack purchased the building, expanded it and celebrated a ribbon-cutting Tuesday.

Mark Kasberg, the Ohio Pack CFO, explained the dramatic turn of events two years ago.

“At the same time, we were looking at land in Heath we were looking at this building, and our preference was Johnstown, but we were told it was under contract," Kasberg said. "The same day we bought the land in Heath, we got word the (building) contract fell through.”

Johnstown Village Administrator Jim Lenner said the building became available when Ohio Grown Therapies did not receive its medical marijuana cultivator license.

Silver linings eventually emerged everywhere, as each lost opportunity opened the door for a new one.

Ohio Grown Therapies later received its medical marijuana cultivation and processor licenses. The company expanded and fully occupied the building it had shared with Apeks Supercritical, which built a new building across the street in the industrial park.

In Heath, the site abandoned by Ohio Pack has become a construction site for Nature's One, the world's first organic infant nutrition manufacturing facility, expected to begin production early next year.

Lenner said sometimes business decisions are beyond the control of a municipality.

“The highs are great and the lows not so great, and somewhere in between is the day-to-day," Lenner said. "You try not to get too excited about the highs or too down on yourself about the lows. You try to make the community as business-friendly as possible."

Johnstown has more than overcome the loss of Thirty-One Gifts, with income tax collections expected to reach $2.1 million this year, up $200,000 from 2018.

“We’re doing very well in terms of income tax collections, because employers are increasing wages and more people moving into the community," Lenner said.

Ohio Pack added a 32,000-square foot, 60-foot tall addition to the back of the structure, which is certified as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design building.

“The building really had everything we were looking for, good-looking and well built," Kasberg said. "We have heavy equipment and were looking for a good foundation and pretty wide open. It was a good fit.”

Ohio Pack was reportedly planning to spend $12 million on equipment in Heath, but Kasberg said the investment in Johnstown is "quite a bit more than that." All the equipment has been installed.

Alene Candles

Nine years ago, Alene Candles looked at a cornfield in western Licking County and tried to imagine opening a manufacturing site there. The company began manufacturing in a 100,000-square foot space in a multi-tenant building at the New Albany Personal Care and Beauty Campus in 2012.

“We had looked at facilities throughout the Midwest for continued expansion," Alene Candles President Rod Harl said. “It was scary, to be completely honest. This was a cornfield, and it's probably been the most successful project I’ve ever been involved with in my career.”

Since 2012, the company has enjoyed a four-fold increase in production, Harl said. It has partnered with some other companies in the beauty campus and plans to do more.

“The experience we’ve had with the community in the Columbus area, it made a great deal of sense for expansion plans closer to home," Harl said. "That’s terrific for us. We’ll be able to share personnel between the two facilities. And move products. There’s no stoplights between the two.”

kmallett@newarkadvocate.com

740-328-8545

Twitter: @kmallett1958

Company profiles

Ohio Pack: Manufacturer of raw material used in packaging for food industry. Founded two years ago. Jointly owned by Hosokawa Yoko (founded 1949; headquarters in Tokyo) and CDF Corporation (founded 1917; headquarters in Plymouth, Massachusetts). Most customers in the Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky areas.

Alene Candles: A contract and private-label manufacturer of custom-designed filled candles for the gift, cosmetic and retail markets. Headquarters and manufacturing facility in Milford, New Hampshire. Showroom in New York City. Midwest manufacturing plant in New Albany, Ohio.