City of Greenville and Hunt County officials lauded the arrival Tuesday of a brand new industry, which will build a huge plant and bring more than 100 jobs to the area.

And there may be at least one more major development later this week.

Sabert Corporation announced it will be celebrating 35 years in business next year with the opening of a new manufacturing facility in Greenville. The site chosen will be on 77.128 acres of land at 6601 FM 1570.

Construction of the approximately 450,000 square foot facility is set to begin by the end of the year with a fully operational plant expected by the end of 2018.

During Monday’s announcement, the company said it is pleased to be working with Hunt County and the city of Greenville on a partnership expected to bring approximately 125 new jobs to the area over the next three years. The plant is expected to be the company’s first North American facility to offer 100 percent compostable food packaging.

“Sabert is very excited to partner with the city of Greenville and Hunt County in the development, construction and future operation of our newest manufacturing facility,” said Steve Roberts, Plant Manager for the new Greenville facility,. “Our vision is to be the most admired company in our industry. We look forward to making this vision a reality by providing innovative and sustainable food packaging products to our customers, made in the USA, providing a safe and enjoyable work environment, and by being a model corporate citizen in our community.”

“Sabert is the exact quality of company for Hunt County with this new state of the art manufacturing facility that will offer many benefits for great new jobs for Hunt County residents as well as economic growth for our growing County,” said Hunt County Judge John Horn. We welcome them with open arms.”

“Greenville has been targeting great companies like these to add to our growing industrial base,” added Greenville Mayor David Dreiling. “This company will assist with our continuing goal of providing quality jobs for our citizens, adding industrial property value growth, and more industrial customers for our city owned electric utility, GEUS.”

“We want to especially thank Mr. Albert Salama and all of Sabert Corporation for their choice of Greenville,” said Greenville Board of Development Chairman Randy Tarpley. “Our GBOD Board and Staff have worked very hard since the end of 2015 to land Sabert in Greenville. We couldn’t have done it without the assistance of the Mayor, City Council, City Staff, County Judge, County Commissioners, GEUS Board and Staff. This was truly a community wide effort and we greatly welcome this tremendous company to Greenville, Texas.”

Sabert is a leading global manufacturer of innovative food packaging products and solutions. The company was founded in 1983 on a single mission: to enhance and advance the way people enjoy food. Today the company designs, manufactures and distributes a wide spectrum of packaging solutions for food distributors, restaurants, caterers, supermarkets, national food chains and consumer entertaining.

Headquartered in Sayreville, N.J., Sabert operates North American facilities in New Jersey, California, Kentucky and Indiana as well as manufacturing facilities in Belgium and Zhongshan, China.

Greenville Board of Development/4A Corporation CEO Greg Sims said the Sabert Corporation was being developed under the code name “Takeaway” as negotiations continued with the company.

“The Board of Development, City of Greenville and Hunt County have been competing with multi-states and cities to recruit this company headquartered in New Jersey since December, 2015,” Sims said.

“The Hunt County Commissioners approved a State of Texas Chapter 312 50% county tax abatement on a new building construction and new equipment purchase and installation for 10 years to recruit the company. They also approved a State of Texas Chapter 381 Hunt County Economic Development Agreement for 20 years.”

And there could be even more good economic news forthcoming for the Greenville area this week.