Tax credit leads to new local jobs

An Independence company is celebrating a first.

Ox Paper Tube & Core Midwest is the first area company to benefit from the expansion of the into Independence. The company plans to add a product line, creating about 20 jobs.

The  Missouri Enhanced Enterprise Zone program was established in Missouri in 2004 but just became available to Independence companies this past spring. Zones are specified areas, designated by local cities and certified by the state. Zone designation is based on criteria mainly focusing on the potential to create jobs in a targeted industry that can affect local development.

The manufacturer of paper tubes, such as those used for mailing tubes, duct tape and carpet rolls, will receive a $127,793 tax credit. The credits are intended to allow the company at 3301 W. Geospace Drive to expand. Any unused credits will be paid back in cash, said Jodi Krantz, director of business development for the Independence Council for Economic Development.

Krantz said the state program will provide a boost to existing and new companies.

“It gives us another incentive to entice companies to expand and to move here, too,” she said. “It’s just a nice business tool to have.”

Matt Sullivan, president of the company, said the procedure took more than a year.

“It is a long process, but I think the return will be well worth it,” he said.

Overall, the company will make a $3.26 million investment. Company officials hope to expand to 100,000 square feet to accommodate the new equipment and new employees. The company currently operates from a 35,000-square-foot facility.

Sullivan said the process involves plants in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The company takes recycled materials such as boxes, phone books and office paper and adds water to break it down before it’s dried and shaped into paperboard. That’s the way the product comes to Independence, where it’s placed and shaped into cylinder tubes. The tubing is shipped to the manufacturing plants of materials such as electrical tape and carpeting, where those products are wrapped around the tubing.