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CHARLESTON,
WV - Governor Jim Justice and Secretary of Commerce H. Wood Thrasher
announced today that the West Virginia Great Barrel Company will build a
manufacturing facility in Greenbrier County. The 90,000-square-foot plant
will be situated on a 23-acre site in White Sulphur Springs.
“We have had a lot of good news lately,” said Gov. Justice, citing the
recent expansion of Hino Motors Manufacturing USA and Toyota Motor
Manufacturing West Virginia, as well as the
passage of the road bond. “The people from West Virginia Great Barrel
Company are here to do something unique in West Virginia.”
Usually, timber harvested in West Virginia is shipped as raw material to
other countries to be processed into manufactured products, said the
governor. “With West Virginia
Great Barrel Company, our people will harvest the timber and we will make
the goods ourselves.”
“This project brings good value-added jobs to the state,” said Secretary
Thrasher. “West Virginia Great Barrel Company will create 113 new high
quality jobs in their manufacturing plant and another 25 new jobs in a
stave mill and log yard. And using West Virginia’s own white oak will support jobs in our state’s
timber industry, on which many families and communities rely.”
West Virginia Great Barrel Company has been approved for a $6 million
loan from the West Virginia Economic Development Authority to finance the
purchase of equipment and the land. David Warner, WVEDA executive director
said the project also has attracted another $6 million from banks.
Combined with funds from private investment sources, the total project
funding amounts will be more than $30 million.
The Marshall University Center for Business and Economic Research
completed an economic impact analysis that puts the total annual economic
impact of the manufacturing facility at over $50 million dollars.
Construction on the West Virginia Great Barrel Company facility is slated
to begin in 2018. The plant is scheduled to become operational in the
first quarter of 2019.
By federal law, bourbon, rye and whiskey — excluding corn whiskey — must
be aged in new, charred oak containers. The company’s goal is to produce
125,000 barrels a year to serve the bourbon, whiskey and rye distilling
industry.
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