The closed glass plant of Cameron Glass will restart production at the Port of Kalama early in 2012, expected to bring about 100 jobs to the area, according to company officials. Bennu Glass LLC, which bought the former Cameron Glass plant out of bankruptcy for $64.8M in 2010, plans to produce 100M bottles/pa, with substantial investments to replace most of the plant's glassmaking equipment, Jerry Lemieux, CEO of Bennu, said, adding that he hopes to capture business from companies importing bottles from China. According to Lemieux, Bennu plans to install a massive liquid-oxygen furnace to heat the glass to 2,800°F. Bennu intends to hire key personnel such as plant engineers & plant managers with experience in the glass industry immediately. "In key, critical positions, we need people who were in the glass industry before," Lemieux said, adding that he expects to hire the majority of the labour force from the local area. Bennu is owned by Medley Capital, a New York-based financial firm that invested about $30M unsecured loans for the $109M Cameron plant.
