Sheet by sheet, the corrugated cardboard comes off the assembly line at the Longview Fibre Co. facility in Bowling Green, Ky. The new $20 million plant opened in September. The project initially created 30 new jobs in Bowling Green, and there is room to grow for Longview at the 21-acre site inside the South Central Kentucky Industrial Park.

"Our future growth is going to relate to whatever business growth we have," said Curt Copenhagen, public affairs director for Longview Fibre. "The structure is designed to accommodate potential future expansion."

The new plant contains 300,000 square feet of space in this rapidly growing industrial park. Also locating in the South Central Park is Car Top Systems N.A. Inc., a German company that supplies retractable hardtop products for the new Cadillac Evoq and the removable tops for the 2004 Corvette model.

CTS plans to build a 27,000 square foot facility inside the industrial park, creating 75 new jobs in Bowling Green.

At another location in the park, KIRIU USA Corp. plans to build a 35,000 square foot, $9 million facility. KIRIU produces automotive brake rotors for Nissan in the United States. The company also supplies Subaru in Japan.

Proximity a big issue for Longview

For Longview Fibre, its new Bowling Green plant marks the company's 17th packaging converting plant over 12 states. According to Copenhagen, the Bowling Green facility is the company's first plant in the Mid-South area.

Workers at the new facility manufacture, store and distribute corrugated containers. The company has a state-of-the art inventory program for quick delivery, has its own dedicated trucking, professional structural and graphic designers and does its own box prototyping work.

"We're well equipped to manufacture a wide variety of boxes," said Copenhagen.

The facility is equipped with a number of high-speed box finishing machines, four-color printing, three-color inline die cutters and computerized ink blending. According to Copenhagen, the decision to locate inside the South Central Park was made, in part, because of its proximity to transportation services. This includes highways and rail lines.

Proximity to markets and an excellent transportation system have also brought numerous companies to Henderson, in northern Kentucky, just across the Kentucky-Indiana border from Evansville, Ind.

Fifty-one different manufacturing expansions have occurred in Henderson in the last three years, with almost 800 new jobs and $70 million invested.

Most of the expansions stem from companies that have done business in Henderson for a while. For example, Accuride Corp., a maker of truck wheels and rims, began operations in the city in 1973. Today, the company employs 640 people in Henderson.

Another company, Sights Denim Systems Inc., came to Henderson in 1995 and now employs 120 people. The company has a research and development facility for chemical and denim products in Henderson.

Tech company likes Lexington

Greg Evans is growing his customized Intranet/Extranet Web site company, Symposia, in Lexington. According to Evans, the company recently moved out of its incubator location with bCatalyst and changed its name from eRoute to Symposia.

The name change signifies a change in the company's services. It narrowed its scope, eliminating its PC offerings and Internet access to focus on in-house communications services with its product named Intercom.

"The logistics are less intensive than our original business," said Evans.