In 2014, the Oklahoma Department of Commerce first met with the Sofidel Group, an Italian manufacturer of tissue paper, during the SelectUSA Investment Summit in Washington, D.C. After significant research and the cooperative work of many in Oklahoma, Sofidel selected Inola, Okla., as the location for its new tissue paper manufacturing facility. The company initially invested $360 million in the new facility, creating more than 350 new jobs.
Commerce sat down with the company and the Tulsa Ports to discuss how Sofidel Group narrowed in on Oklahoma and how its continued to grow here in the Sooner State.
Q: Tell us about Sofidel and the company’s history.
Jose Zarandona, Site Operation Manager, Sofidel – Inola: Sofidel is a family company that started close to 60 years ago, in 1966, in the area of Lucca in Italy. In total, we are in 13 different countries. We are doing mainly bathroom tissue, kitchen towel and all kinds of tissue paper that you can find in the restaurant, hotels and any offices.
Q: Sofidel has multiple locations across the U.S. Why did you choose Oklahoma as your next location?
Jose Zarandona: Oklahoma is a very friendly state to do business and also for newcomers. So it was very easy from the beginning.
Q: How did Commerce help Sofidel when choosing Oklahoma as your site?
Jose Zarandona: The first contact, that was before I came even to the US. It was in one of the meetings of Select USA, in Washington, DC, where the people of the Tulsa Chamber and the Oklahoma Commerce met our CEO and one of our other or the owners of the company.
They were with us in all the aspects of the process up to we started up the site and even after the startup of the site, they had been following us. How it was going with the company, we need any other support. And we had been in contact, you know, all this time.
Q: How did your partnership with Commerce contribute to the process of recruiting Sofidel to Oklahoma?
Andrew Ralston, Director of Economic Development, Tulsa Ports: Commerce is the primary economic development entity in the state of Oklahoma. Most of the projects that we see coming into Oklahoma to look at our industrial properties, Tulsa Port of Inola and Tulsa Port of Catoosa, come through the Department of Commerce. Their ability to get interest in Oklahoma as a whole, but then narrow down to the individual unique regions of the state, is incredible. And I don’t think we would be able to do our jobs without them.
Q: How did you work with Sofidel to support their success and future momentum?
Andrew Ralston: One major piece of the puzzle when Sofidel was locating here was the ability to access rail transportation. That partnership between us and the federal government through the Maritime Administration, Sofidel, Watco companies, who operates the rail, as well as lots of other partners, was able to bring rail transportation to connect Sofidel from the Union Pacific Railroad, and did a $20 million rail connection project through a federal grant.
Q: Sofidel has utilized the Oklahoma Quality Jobs incentive through Commerce. How has this incentive helped Sofidel’s Inola plant?
Andrew Ralston: Sofidel originally came here and had really around 100, 150 employees in their first location in an existing building in Tulsa. And that really spurred into the need for a larger, fully integrated facility to make sure that they could grow long term in northeast Oklahoma. With them now being over 500 employees, the impact of those jobs, both primarily and in the secondary ways at the local level, are enormous.
Jose Zarandona: We start with this with, with the first quality jobs when we are still a small company in Tulsa. And right now we are in our third program of the quality jobs. I think a very successful incentive and a very successful project.
Q: How has Sofidel contributed to the economy in Northeast Oklahoma and the community in the Inola area?
Andrew Ralston: One of the biggest impacts that you see and can measure at the granular level is the initial sales tax inflow from the project landing in the town of Inola. That impact in the first two years of Sofidel constructing tripled the sales tax inflow for the town of Inola and eventually quadrupled it over the next two to three years. That alone, with towns and cities being reliant on sales tax, is impact that I think they were very impressed by.
