Wellman plant sold; company plans to market facility globally

DARLINGTON — An international company that specializes in marketing manufacturing facilities worldwide has purchased the former Wellman Inc. plant in Darlington.

Darlington Developments LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of International Process Plants (IPP), announced its purchase of the plant at 1000 E. McIver Road Tuesday. IPP is the world’s largest plant and equipment trader.

The purchase includes a 1.1-million square foot building, 760 acres of land and all existing machinery and equipment.

Darlington Development plans to remarket the plant to one or more users.

Existing production units of 250,000 tons per year of PET bottle grade resin, 250,000 tons per year of polyester staple fiber and 120,000 tons per year of amorphous PET, are available to restart in whole or in part, to be operated in place and restarted or to be moved elsewhere. If the plants are moved to another location, the company said it will use the infrastructure to repopulate the site with other industries.

Wellman closed the Darlington and Johnsonville plants last year. About 550 workers were employed at the Darlington plant when the company announced plans to close the facility last September. The plant closed in November. The Johnsonville plant employed 170.

Robert Long, executive director of the Darlington County Economic Development Partnership, said the purchase by IPP is good news for the county and bodes well for its future economic development.

“This company has a strong reputation and has been very successful in buying former plants and remarketing them all over the world,” Long said.

He said IPP’s reputation and connections in the chemical and processing industries will help draw one or more manufacturers to the facility.

“When you have an owner with those kind of strong connections, that’s a powerful asset,” Long said. “Obviously, the more players you can bring to the table, the better. To have an active owner involved in marketing the plant, that’s a very strong selling point for us.”

Long said the announcement by IPP holds special significance for him. Wellman announced its plans to close the Darlington plant just one day before Long started in his position as executive director of the partnership.

The additional surrounding land included in the purchase also holds significant potential for future development, he said.

”I see a bright future with this,” Long said.

IPP's business model is to purchase complete plants, with the land, buildings and equipment, for which manufacturers no longer have a need that are being closed globally. In some cases IPP will also take on the environmental remediation of the site. IPP and its subsidiaries utilize their globally integrated corporate infrastructure within the U.S., U.K., Germany, Italy, France, Poland, Romania, India, Portugal, Czech Republic, Korea and Russia to identify customers to repopulate a site by making the same product. When that is not feasible, IPP can sell the processes elsewhere in the world and market a site’s remaining assets in the global marketplace in order to repopulate the site.

“Magnified by the current economic conditions, we meet a niche that allows a company interested in expanding capacity an opportunity to do so at a fraction of the cost of building a new facility,” said Stan Sackowitiz, vice president of business development of International Process Plants. “With approximately 15 other complete plants that we own for resale and an inventory of over 25,000 pieces of process equipment at our disposal, we can provide a customer a turnkey operation.”

Some of the existing assets of the Wellman Palmetto Plant include large onsite well water production, waste water treatment plant, 160-car rail yard, large boiler capacity for steam production and hot oil production, 10 inch diameter natural gas service and heavy electrical infrastructure.

“First and foremost, County Council has remained focused on working with former Wellman employees impacted by the plant closure,” said Wesley Blackwell, chairman of Darlington County Council. “We are now focused on bringing new investment and jobs back into this former pillar of our community.”

“We are pleased that we can work with Darlington Development to move forward to proactively remarket the former Wellman Palmetto Plant now that it has been sold,” said Jim Ramsey, chairman of Darlington County Economic Development Partnership. “In addition to more than one million square feet under roof, I am excited about the hundreds of undeveloped acres that can be marketed separately for business development.”

IPP is headquartered in Hamilton, N.J, with international offices, infrastructure and affiliates in China, Czech Republic, England, Germany, India, Poland, Romania, Korea, Russia, Italy and France. With more than 30 years of experience, IPP is dedicated to providing the worldwide processing industries with quality complete plants and equipment at competitive prices.

The Darlington County Economic Development Partnership is a public/private partnership established by Darlington County Council and supported by Darlington County, City of Hartsville and members of Darlington County Progress Inc. The Partnership also works with regional, state and federal agencies in securing available grants and other financial assistance for business and industrial growth.