150 Factory Jobs Coming to Hot Springs

London-based Rexam PLC announced Wednesday that it is hiring 150 additional workers by the end of the year for its plant in Hot Springs, Ark.

Rexam, which makes consumer packaging, said it is closing six plants and the Hot Springs facility will be outfitted with additional equipment from those factories. According to the Associated Press, Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe’s Quick Action Closing Fund is paying the company $1.5 million to move the equipment.

Rexam’s Hot Springs plant currently employs about 250 people. The new equipment will allow the facility to produce between 12 billion and 18 billion pieces per year, a major increase from the current production of about 1 billion pieces a year.

A Rexam official told the AP the company plans to eventually expand the Hot Springs plant.

“It’s a mix of the right facility, the fact that we’ve got the room to be able to expand and, most importantly, that we’ve got the right people,” said Malcolm Harrison, group director of Rexam’s plastic packaging division. “We’re confident we can hire the right people.”

Rexam’s plastics division has more than 40 plants and 13,000 workers. Overall, the company has about 100 plants and 23,000 employees worldwide.