Kimberly-Clark to build $800M manufacturing facility in Warren

The Kimberly-Clark Corporation has announced its plans for a facility coming to Warren.

The company, which is one of the world's leading manufacturers of personal care and hygiene products, will establish an $800 million advanced manufacturing facility in Warren.

This facility is expected to create 491 new jobs for the area.

Kimberly-Clark's board of directors met on Thursday to approve the project following the Ohio Tax Credit Authority's approval of a 10-year job creation tax credit earlier in the week.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine is quoted in a press release welcoming this development to the Mahoning Valley.

"Kimberly-Clark has advanced production facilities all over the world, and the fact that they are now coming to Trumbull County says a great deal about the area's workforce and Ohio's leadership in rebuilding the domestic manufacturing supply," DeWine said.

The Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber says Kimberly-Clark's presence will not only bring high quality jobs and impact to the area, but also provide the continued attractiveness of the Mahoning Valley as a destination for industry and innovation.

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Lieutenant Governor Jim Tressel calls this facility 'cutting edge'.
He says it will employ skilled talent from across our area.

"We're so excited," said Alexa Sweeney Blackann, interim CEO of Lake to River Economic Development. The organization has been involved in the project ever since Kimberly Clark chose the site. It played a key role in convincing the company to set up shop here.

"We hope this will lead to more construction jobs right out of the gate, so a real opportunity," said Blackann. "We're curious about their supply chain, so there's a lot of opportunity around an investment like this in Trumbull County."

To that end, Lake to River VP of economic development Sarah Boyarko told 21 News this facility signals a new direction and a new era in our Valley's economy.

"What this will do is offer a little bit of manufacturing diversification. So that's an important thing as we move away from maybe having all our eggs in one basket like we once did with the steel industry. So we're very excited about the diversification and a new industry that has never been in our market."

Kimberly Clark makes all sorts of personal care products like Kleenex, Scott tissue and Huggies diapers.
They got offered lots of tax abatements from the city of Warren, Warren Township and Trumbull County.
Just a few days ago, the state of Ohio also granted a 10-year Job Creation Tax Credit for this project.

Key partnerships coming together to create new opportunity in The Valley.

"We're used to steel and automobiles." said Trumbull County Commissioner Denny Malloy who expressed his excitement about the country's biggest manufacturer of personal hygiene products.

"Kimberly Clark, and those are things that we use everyday and it's a business that won't go out of business. As we saw during Covid, paper products are always in high demand." Malloy explained.

Fellow County Commissioner Tony Bernard echoed that excitement calling it fantastic news for the entire valley, while expressing his gratitude toward the Port Authority and others for bringing this to fruition.

In Warren, city councilman Todd Johnson, who grew up to see the impact that steel manufacturing and auto manufacturers like General Motors had on the valley, says the prospect of auxiliary businesses get a boost is something to look forward to.

"For me, being a child of this area and watching people build lives off of jobs right here in the area. It's encouraging for me to see that those new generations coming up will be able to do the same thing." said Johnson.

Local leaders believe this partnership is mutually beneficial.

"I think Kimberly Clark looked at it and I think they looked at where we are located. They looked at the workforce that we have. They looked at the people we have and how dedicated they were with GM and the steel mills and they said 'that's the kind of people we want making our product." Malloy stated, adding that the expectation is for the factory to be build by this time next year, reaching full production within the next three.