Ross Products $48 Million Packaging Line Project Under Construction at Ohio Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Ross Products, a division of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)(Chicago, Illinois), has started construction on a $48 million capital investment project at a plant in Columbus, Ohio. Ross is installing a new high-speed re-sealable plastic bottle line that will process and package 8-ounce bottled liquid infant and adult nutritional products. The new line is being installed within the company’s 500,000 square foot building located on Cleveland Avenue and is 30%-40% complete with startup scheduled for December 2007.

The Columbus plant makes Ensure nutritional drinks for adults and also produces baby formula under the Similac, Isomil and Alimentum brands in 2- ounce and 32-ounce bottles. Ross began phasing out the use of cans several years ago in favor of more convenient plastic containers of various sizes. The future of can products will be geared towards institutional markets.

Ross contracted CH2M Hill-Lockwood Greene (Cincinnati, Ohio) to provide engineering services to the project. Meanwhile, Ross retained responsibility for equipment procurement and selection of construction contractors and related services.

The Columbus project is included in more than $100 million in capital and maintenance expenditures Industrial Info (IIR) is tracking in the Food & Beverage industry in Ohio. Additionally, IIR’s database of operational plants in Ohio lists over 200 plants with over 1,400 unique management contacts.

View Plant Profile - 1511530
View Project Report - 10003906

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