Company Adds 3rd Facility in Area

By CHUCK STINNETT
, Gleaner staff
831-8343 * cstinnett@thegleaner.com
Thursday, June 28, 2007

Shamrock Technologies, which already operates two plants in Henderson, has purchased the former Millstone Coffee plant at the riverport and will operate a third facility there.

Shamrock in January announced a 40,000-square-foot expansion of its plant on Community Drive that would create 21 jobs.

But instead of expanding, it will instead use the 72,000-square-foot building at the riverport which "gives them room for growth in the future," according to Kevin Sheilley, president and CEO of the Northwest Kentucky Forward regional economic development agency.

The fact that Shamrock will have three plants here demonstrates the company's success and confidence in doing business here, Sheilley said.

Its plants on Community Drive and McKinley Street employ 50 full-time employees.

Shamrock is one of the world's largest processors of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a polymer known by the trade name Teflon.

It is also a world-wide supplier of micronized powders.

Shamrock, a privately held company based in Newark, N.J., also operates a facility in Belgium.

The Millstone plant opened here in 1991 and employed 65 people. Millstone owner Phil Johnson sold the company to food products giant Proctor & Gamble in 1995 but retained ownership of the Henderson building. P&G operated in the plant for five years before ceasing operations here in 2000.

It was reopened by Canadian gourmet coffee company Van Houtte Inc. in 2001, though employment peaked at 12. Van Houtte closed the plant one year ago.