Dansons USA, based in Phoenix, said Wednesday that it will open a wood-pellet mill and distribution center in Hope with 50 to 100 employees over the next three years.
It will be the nation's largest mill for barbecue wood pellets, the family-owned company said.
The company will take over a 143-acre site abandoned by Georgia-Pacific Corp., which announced in June 2019 that it was closing its particle-board operations in Hope. The plant had about 100 workers.
Georgia-Pacific, at the same time, said that it was closing its bleached-board operations at its mill in Crossett, cutting 555 jobs.
The Dansons facility will start with three pelleters and a 100,000-ton capacity but will have the capability of expanding to nine pelleters and 300,000 tons, the company said in a news release. Dansons also will build a distribution center for wood pellets and wood-pellet barbecue grills.
"Dansons is setting the barbecue world on fire with its high-quality wood pellets and top-flight pellet grills," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a news release.
"Dansons and Hope are a perfect match," Hutchinson said. "Dansons needs wood. Arkansas has wood. Dansons needs a first-rate workforce. Arkansans are the hardest working and smartest employees anywhere. Dansons and Arkansas will set the standard for barbecue wood pellets, and soon grill masters will be serving barbecue with the distinctive taste of Arkansas."
"This is great news," Steve Harris, president of the Hempstead County Economic Development Corp., said by telephone. "It's on 143 acres, with a large building and its own railroad spur, in the wood basket of the South, with plenty of more room to expand."
Harris said middleman investors bought the land from Georgia-Pacific after it formally closed the Hope particle-board plant and sold it to Dansons in September. "You never know how long economic development projects will take," Harris said, "but this one was a relatively short time."
The Dansons pellets in Hope will be manufactured for the brands Pit Boss Grills and Louisiana Grills. Dansons said the pellets were 100% natural and free of artificial flavors, spray scents and binders.
According to its website, Dansons was founded in 1999 by Dan Thiessen and his two sons with the desire to turn the waste of sawmills into a reliable source of energy. The company has since expanded its product line from animal bedding to pellet fuel and pellet fuel appliances.
The Arkansas Economic Development Commission said the company is eligible for the Advantage Arkansas state income tax credit; the Tax Back program, which provides sales-tax refunds on building materials, taxable machinery and equipment, and $240,000 in Community Development Block Grants.
"The state of Arkansas has been the most welcoming, most friendly and most encouraging location we've ever done business in," Dansons President Jeff Thiessen said in a news release. "The Arkansas Economic Development Commission, from the town, county and state level, has welcomed us with open arms from the onset of this project."