Italian paper manufacturer announces $360M plant in Oklahoma

INOLA, Okla. (AP) – An Italian tissue paper manufacturer is investing $360 million to build a new plant in northeastern Oklahoma that it says will support 300 area jobs.
Sofidel Group announced the plan Friday as it broke ground on the project in Inola, a town of 1,900 people located about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Tulsa.
The 1.8-million-square-foot plant is expected to be online by 2020 and will be able to produce 120,000 tons of tissue paper annually. Hundreds of jobs are expected to be created in the Rogers County area.
Luigi Lazzareschi, the CEO of Sofidel Group, says the plant will serve the south-central and central-western U.S., where it has been operating since 2012.
The company has more than 6,000 employees and subsidiaries in 13 countries.