Update Oct. 12: This story has been updated with comments from company president Clint Seckman.
A manufacturer of lithographic prints and custom envelopes for direct-mail marketing will invest $10 million in its Bedford County facility, adding 41 jobs, the governor’s office said Tuesday.
Parkland Direct, on Enterprise Drive off U.S. 221 in Forest, will add two new converter and press machines in a 50,000-square-foot expansion, according to a news release from Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office.
“We are excited for our operational expansion and adding new careers in our community and the Commonwealth,” Parkland Direct President Clint Seckman said in the news release. “We are so thankful to [the Virginia Economic Development Partnership], our team, and clients who have given us the opportunity to adapt to our evolving industry and provide even better products and service in direct mail marketing.”
Seckman said in an email Thursday that the building expansion is planned to start in the first quarter of 2024 and will take about six months to finish, while the first of the new equipment is expected in the late fourth quarter of 2024.
The entire expansion announced Tuesday is anticipated to take 18 to 24 months, he said.
Seckman said the new jobs will be in a variety of positions from entry-level workers to skilled machine operators.
The VEDP will support Parkland Direct’s job creation through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program, which provides “consultative services and funding to companies creating new jobs in order to support employee recruitment and training activities,” the news release said.
The Bedford County Board of Supervisors approved a special use permit for Parkland Direct late last month, paving the way for the expansion.
The company’s long-range plan involves three additions of 50,000 square feet each, according to a presentation at that meeting.
“We are thrilled to see Parkland Direct’s expansion project take shape in Bedford County,” Edgar Tuck, chair of the Bedford County Board of Supervisors, said in Youngkin’s release on Tuesday. “This project not only creates new jobs, it reinforces the County’s reputation as a place for businesses to grow.”
Founded in 1978, Parkland Direct is a family-owned “industry leader in high-volume lithographic envelope manufacturing with extensive experience in foiling, embossing, and specialty coatings for direct mail marketing,” according to Youngkin’s release.