Paper bag maker Ronpak marked the opening of its new manufacturing facility and corporate headquarters at a ceremony yesterday at the Port of Caddo-Bossier. Over the past two years, the privately held company moved its headquarters from New Jersey and built a $16.8 million manufacturing facility at the Port in order to be near a Dallas customer. It makes carry-out bags and food wrappings for the fast food industry.
CEO Ronald Sedley said he currently has 109 employees in Shreveport, and he plans to more than double his workforce over the next several years.
“What we’re doing down here now is McDonald's and Wendy’s out of this plant now. We will expand that. There will be five new pieces of equipment going in this year," Sedley said.
The Shreveport manufacturing plant is producing 20,000 tons of paper products a year, Sedley said, and he aims to boost that to 100,000 tons. He said it’s the first start-up paper bag manufacturing plant to be built in over a decade.