International Business to Bring Growing Green Operation to Anderson, IN

A five-person team from Variety Global Business (VGB) Group spent the past three days in Anderson, IN where the company is considering a manufacturing and distribution center. At a time when much U.S. manufacturing has moved to Asia, John Lin, Founder of VGB, said he wants to bring his Chinese company to Anderson because of the skilled work force and to bring his product closer to his customers.

John Pitre, CEO of VGB’s “starchware” division, said the company has accelerated its timeline and could be operational in Anderson in nine months. VGB has also expanded the scope of the project from 120-140 jobs to around 450 jobs.

VGB produces “starchware,” an alternative to plastic foam products such as Styrofoam, made from corn starch. Pitre said tableware is the kind used at a picnic, while industrial starchware is used for food packaging. VGB claims its starchware is 97.7 percent compostable, and breaks down in just 120 days in a landfill.

Economic Development Director Linda Dawson said city officials put VGB in contact with creative banking experts and an architectural firm. The city also explained Anderson’s foreign trade zones as a designated area of the city that is like a foreign country, noting that most of the former automotive plants have been designated as FTZs. “Plant 9, for example, is not in an FTZ, but if we have an area already designated as an FTZ, we have the ability to swap properties.”

Officials from VGB haves expressed interest in the former General Motors Corp. Plant 20, off 38th Street near Scatterfield Road. But Plant 9, across from the former Guide Corp. property near 38th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, is also being considered for short-term operations.

For more information on the decision to manufacture out of Anderson, IN please visit The Herald Bulletin.