Edgewell Personal Care adds 140 jobs at Dover facility

Recent consolidation of Edgewell Personal Care's North American Feminine Care production at the company's Dover facility has added 140 new jobs in Delaware's capital.

The 500,000-square-foot facility now has around 650 jobs.

The $90 million move involved the company shutting down its plant in Montreal and relocating machinery to the redesigned Dover facility. Chris Cowell, vice president of global operations, said the move involved breaking down each individual manufacturing line's components and crating them properly for the move.

The process took around 18 months and most of the 140 new jobs have already been filled.

At a Thursday event, the company showed off its redesigned plant and welcomed officials from Walmart to join the announcement.

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Walmart in 2013 announced the “Made in USA” campaign, which pledged to purchase $250 billion of American-made products for its stores by 2023. A Walmart official said today 66 percent of products on its shelves are made in America.

The partnership between Walmart and Edgewell has resulted in jobs.

"Walmart is our most important customer," Crowell said.

Crowell said a big reason for the relocation was to get closer to the company's customers.

"We're well aware that U.S. consumers have a preference for products made in the U.S.," Crowell said. "We have to manufacture right next to where our consumer is."

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Edgewell Personal Care is the parent company of leading global personal care brands in the shave, feminine care, sun care, skin care and infant markets. The company was spun off from Energizer Holdings in 2015.

The infancy of the Delaware Strategic Fund helped keep the Dover facility operating in Delaware in the mid-1990s.

At the time, Playtex Products was being courted to relocate its Dover tampon manufacturing plant to Richmond, Virginia, by a promise of $6 million in incentives. Delaware’s economic development director recommended the state counter with a $3 million cash payment to the company.

To complete this most recent consolidation, nearly $3 million in state grants was approved in 2015 by the Council on Development Finance to help Edgewell with relocation and workforce training.

These days, Edgewell boasts a portfolio featuring top care products like Schick and Edge in the shaving space, Banana Boat and Hawaiin Tropic lotions, Playtex, Wet Ones and others.

Contact reporter Jeff Neiburg at (302) 983-6772, jneiburg@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @Jeff_Neiburg.