Dominion Packaging is sinking $25 million into its eastern Henrico County operations, a move the company expects will create more than 100 new jobs at a business that has called the area home for more than two decades. The folding-carton manufacturer already runs three buildings in the county and employs more than 400 people, and this latest investment adds a distribution facility while freeing up room for manufacturing at its existing plants.
According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the project includes a distribution facility in eastern Henrico. The facility is intended to serve as a finished-goods storage and distribution hub, which the Times-Dispatch reports will let Dominion Packaging shift operations out of a neighboring facility and dedicate more of that space to manufacturing. A photo caption accompanying the paper's coverage of the project cited a $35 million figure for the new eastern Henrico facility, a number that differs from the $25 million investment figure reported elsewhere in the same article.
A Packaging Business Built From a Basement Start
Dominion Packaging's footprint in eastern Henrico centers on its Seven Hills Boulevard corridor. The company's own facilities page describes two manufacturing sites and a distribution warehouse in the Richmond area, including a plant at 2724 Seven Hills Boulevard where printing, cutting and converting happen under one roof, and a separate building at 2708 Seven Hills Boulevard that the company lists as a finished-goods and distribution-center warehouse. The business describes its printing capabilities as spanning rotogravure, offset, flexography and industrial digital printing, per its own materials.
The company's growth has deep roots. According to Area Development, Dominion Packaging got its start in a basement in 2004 with a single piece of equipment, eventually building into what the Times-Dispatch now describes as one of the country's largest independent folding-carton manufacturers. The company credits customer demand and support from Henrico economic development officials for fueling that growth, the Times-Dispatch reports.
Executive Ties Expansion to Client Confidence
Tommy Piper, according to the Times-Dispatch, said the expansion reflects customer trust in Dominion Packaging's team. The company has also described itself in past announcements as a provider of packaging solutions for the tobacco and quick-service restaurant industries, per the Greater Richmond Partnership.
This is not the first time Dominion Packaging has announced a major Henrico investment. A 2016 announcement from the Greater Richmond Partnership described a $25.1 million expansion tied to a new contract with Anheuser-Busch, expected to create 60 new jobs.
For now, Dominion Packaging's eastern Henrico buildout centers on the new distribution hub at 5700 Seven Hills Boulevard, with the company pointing to customer demand and local economic development support as the drivers behind its latest round of growth in the county it has called home for more than 20 years.
