Axium Plastics is ready to expand for the second time in New Albany’s International Personal Care and Beauty Campus, according to company officials.

Ven Bhindwallam, controller for Axium, said company officials intend to add 90,000 square feet to the facility by December.

He said the expansion is needed to store more materials for customers.

Axium Plastics, based in Mississauga, Ontario, manufactures plastic containers ranging in size from 0.5 ounce to 40 ounces for the food, personal-care, health-care and automotive industries.

Bhindwallam said the company manufactured 1.6 billion bottles last year at the New Albany facility.

He said called the site “strategic,” saying it is within driving distance of 40 percent of the population in Chicago, New York and New Jersey.

Bhindwallam said the company brought its pharmaceutical line to New Albany and continues to incorporate different lines at the location.

L Brands is building a facility in the same business park. Bhindwallam said Axium needs to expand to provide more products for L Brands because Axium produces about 70 percent of the bottles sold by Bath & Body Works.

He said Axium also works with Bocchi Laboratories, which is in the same business park.

Bocchi Laboratories, based in Santa Clarita, Calif., manufactures products for the health and beauty industries. It produces items for Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works.

Axium built a 110,000-square-foot facility in 2011 and expanded by 90,000 square feet in 2012, said Jennifer Chrysler, New Albany’s community-development director.

Chrysler said the company has exceeded all the city’s benchmarks for the development.

Bhindwallam said Axium has more than 200 full-time employees working three shifts, seven days a week, at the site.

He said the annual payroll is $7.5 million.

New Albany City Council on Feb. 24 voted 5-0 to provide a 15-year, 100 percent property-tax abatement on the new expansion. City Council members Chip Fellows and Colleen Briscoe were absent.

New Albany spokesman Scott McAfee said city officials could not estimate the value of the incentive.

He said it is difficult to estimate how an expansion would increase the value of a building.

Chrysler said Axium is investing $10.4 million in the expansion and would create 20 jobs with an estimated annual payroll of $600,000.

Chrysler estimated the expansion would generate $95,100 annually in income-tax revenue.

Per revenue-sharing agreements, each year the New Albany Community Authority would receive $33,500 for infrastructure-debt payments and the Johnstown-Monroe school district and the city’s general fund would receive $30,800 apiece from the income-tax revenue.

By Lori Wince
This Week News