Saint-Gobain to invest $100 million, create 140 jobs in Saline County

Editor’s note: Roby Brock, with our content partner Talk Business, wrote this report. He can be reached at [email protected]

Paris-based Saint-Gobain, one of the oldest manufacturing companies in the world, will expand a plant near Bauxite with a $100 million new investment, expected to create 140 new jobs.

The company will be making ceramic proppants, sand-sized spherical beads that are used in the fracking process for oil and gas drilling. The new jobs will pay about $20 per hour, far above the state wage average.

“This investment is part of Saint-Gobain’s global strategy to invest in new technologies for energy and the environment,” said John Crowe, president and CEO of Saint-Gobain Corp. “The increasing global demand for affordable energy is creating greater activity among oil and gas drilling companies, whose need for proppants will exceed our ability to supply them from Fort Smith alone."

Saint-Gobain has another proppant production facility in Fort Smith. It also has operations in Glenwood, Hot Springs, Nashville and Little Rock and currently employs about 400 Arkansans.

Here’s an interesting tidbit on Saint-Gobain. The company made the mirrors still in place in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles constructed by the 18th century French king, Louis the XIV.

This was certainly a project that state officials have pursued for more than a year.

Link here to see a video of an interview with Arkansas Economic Development Commission Director Maria Haley. She shares her thoughts on the jobs climate and economic conditions.