RockTenn to Expand Georgia Headquarters, Add 500 Jobs

RockTenn, Norcross, Ga., USA, is consolidating its Chicago, Ill., and St. Louis, Mo., operations and bringing 500 new jobs to Georgia, the company announced this past week. In making the move, RockTenn will spend $5 million to expand its corporate headquarters, fueled by incentives from the state and Gwinnett County totaling some $15.7 million. The move is expected to create jobs in accounting, finance, information technology, procurement, and supply chain functions.

According to the Gwinnett Chamber Economic Development, RockTenn will lease about 68,000 sq ft of space at a building in Duluth, Ga., for the expansion. The facility will house new hires as well as some workers transferring from the company's Norcross headquarters.

The company reportedly received more than $700,000 in property tax incentives from Norcross, Gwinnett County, and county schools. The state offer included services worth $100,000 for Georgia's Intellectual Capital Program and about $900,000 for the Georgia Quick Start workforce development program. The company will qualify for an additional $12.5 million in Quality Job Tax Credits based on pay above average salaries.

RockTenn, which has net sales of about $10 billion annually, employs 1,100 Georgians, and has a total workforce of about 26,000, including staff in Canada, Mexico, and China. The new jobs and corporate expansion comes seven months after RockTenn bought Chicago-based rival Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. for $3.5 billion dollars.

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