Indian Plastics Manufacturer Seeks First U.S. Operation in Lockport
Jonathan D. Epstein | June 9, 2023 | Buffalo News
An Indian plastics manufacturer that makes pipes and food packaging wants to set up its first U.S. production facility in the Town of Lockport, in the same business park where an affiliated wind-turbine also wants to start production.
SRI CV Plastics wants to construct a 13,870-square-foot plastic product manufacturing facility at 1000 IDA Park Drive, using a 2-acre parcel of vacant industrial land that it would purchase from the Lockport Industrial Development Agency. The plant would produce all sizes of PVC plastic pipes and disposable food containers used for food packaging.
The $2.34 million project would represent the company's initial foray into the U.S. manufacturing market, but it expects to ramp up to a full line of disposable food containers within two years.
The company is asking the Lockport IDA for more than $300,000 in tax breaks, on top of another $300,000 in state incentives.
Without the subsidies, the company wrote in its application, it would not undertake the project and instead "will seek the assistance it needs from a municipality elsewhere in the United States."
"Location of the project in the Town of Lockport or the State of New York is not critical to its success," the company wrote. "The applicant will begin to actively pursue development incentives in other municipalities and in other states if financial assistance is not provided by the Town of Lockport IDA."
It cited lower costs for labor and workers' compensation insurance, easier permitting, fewer regulations and better development financing in other states. However, the company said it "has not yet begun to actively investigate alternative jurisdictions."
SRI is owned by VEVA Holdings Private Ltd. of India, which is led by president Varun Kumar Velumani. He and VEVA are also partners in Siva Powers America, an Amherst-based startup company that is building an adjacent 10,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 1060 Enterprise Drive, where it will start assembling wind turbines from nacelles and blades produced in India before it starts making the blades themselves locally as well.
Both companies are temporarily based in an East Amherst office at 9260 Transit Road.
SRI said the tax breaks will help offset "the high cost of establishing the applicant's first U.S.-based manufacturing operation," allowing it to "build and furnish a production facility designed to ensure fast track growth of the full extent of the applicant's intended product lines and enable the applicant to begin to serve its U.S. customers at the earliest possible date."
The plant would include 8,500 square feet for manufacturing, 2,000 square feet each for warehouse and research, and 1,000 square feet for office space. Plans call for starting work this month, with completion by September 2024.
