Tuesday, July 12, 2016 12:00 pm

CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio (From The Herald) -- Italian manufacturer Sofidel has broken ground on a $300 million tissue paper facility in Pickaway County. The mill entered its first building phase Monday with a ceremony that drew dozens of elected officials. They included Ohio Lt. Governor Mary Taylor, Congressman Steve Stivers, and State Representative Gary Scherer.

"Today, we celebrate the commencement of construction of the first Sofidel integrated paper mill to be built from the ground up in the United States," said Sofidel CEO Luigi Lazzareschi. "It's going to be a very big project for us."

Lazzareschi said his team chose Pickaway County over 100 other potential sites in the United States.

"This is a very good location for us. Twenty-eight acres of relatively flat land," Lazzareschi said. "A good rail system connected to water and gas, a good airport, good logistically, lots of customer distribution centers, and a potential workforce of hard-working people."

Sofidel was founded in June 1966 by two Italian families, and today is the sixth largest manufacturer in the world of toilet paper, paper towels, facial tissue, and other specialty paper products. The company brings in $2 billion a year and employs 6,000 people worldwide. The new mill is expected to bring an initial 300 jobs to Pickaway County.

"This doesn't happen every day," said Pickaway Progress Partnership (P3) Director Ryan Scribner. "Projects like this are rare, the opportunity is rare, and the sites and communities anywhere that can accommodate them are rare."

Scribner said the effort to bring Sofidel to Pickaway County was made possible through a collaboration with local and state governments, and groups such as Columbus 2020, JobsOhio, and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

"President Obama himself mentioned us just recently multiple times in his keynote address to the Select USA Summit," Scribner said. "Notice has been served that things are happening in Pickaway County."

The Sofidel facility is expected to become operational by 2018. Sofidel's CEO said his company is committed to growing and flourishing along with Pickaway County.

"For our 50th anniversary of Sofidel, we summarize our attention to the future in a sentence: Sofidel, 50 years of growth in the future. If Ohio is the state where the future is happening, then evidently, we share the same interest--the future," Lazzareschi said.