At the last St. Clair County Industrial Development Board meeting, the upcoming expansion of Buckner Barrels was announced.  The St. Clair County Industrial Development Board approved a tax abatement of non-educational for the next ten years to aid in this process.  This expansion will allow Buckner Barrels to add jobs, be more competitive in their industry and continue to grow their business in St. Clair County.

Buckner Barrels is a family-owned and operated company headquartered in Springville, AL with an additional location in Charlotte, North Carolina.  They were founded in St. Clair County in 1975 when the company was bought by Frank & Lillian Buckner.  Since that time, the company’s production has grown from 50 containers per day to over 2,000 containers. Their products and services include both new and reclaimed steel drums, poly drums, intermediate bulk containers (IBC’s or “totes”), fiber drums, overpacks, hazardous materials packaging, stainless steel packaging, pails, glass bottles and jars, and a full range of container accessories and related products.

They are one of the few companies in the United States that have the facilities required to reclaim the entire spectrum of IBCs, open and closed head steel drums, poly drums, and fibers. They are also the only drum plant in the United States to maintain a 0% waste discharge policy – all waste products (including wastewater) are treated and reused on site.

Governed by Christian values, Buckner Barrels strives to be good corporate citizen and to provide positive returns to all of their stakeholders (including their customers, employees, and the communities in which they operate). Buckner Barrels pays their employees fair wages, and provides them with excellent benefits. This commitment enables them to provide high quality products on a continuous basis, with extremely low employee turnover (their average employee tenure is more than 17 years).  In addition, the company is a perennial title sponsor for Relay for Life, and an annual sponsor for events at Springville Elementary School including a Christmas Card art contest and field trips to Homestead Hollow.

 To learn more about Buckner Barrels, visit their website at www.bucknerbarrel.com.

“Buckner Barrels has been proud to call St. Clair County our corporate home for almost 40 years,” said Heath Buckner, President of Buckner Holdings. “We are excited to expand our operations in St. Clair County and are grateful to Don Smith and everyone else at the St. Clair County EDC and IDB for the assistance they provided us in deciding where to locate our new state-of-the-art reconditioning facility. With a projected life span of over 30 years, making the decision on the location of our new plant was one that we did not take lightly. After considering several sites in Alabama and surrounding states, we decided to build here in St. Clair County. Several factors impacted our decision, but among the most important were the great workforce, the proximity to interstates and major highways, a sensible tax structure, and an all-around great quality of life. The abatement package provided by the Industrial Development Board will help us to maintain competitiveness in our multi-state marketplace and will enable us to modestly accelerate our expansion plans, allowing us to create more jobs for our neighbors here in St. Clair County.”

Chairman Stan Batemon, St. Clair County Commission said after the announcement, “One of the biggest signs of success in an area is through expansion of their existing industries.  Not only is it exciting to see new jobs added in St. Clair County, it is also great to see Buckner Barrels making the decision to spend their expansion dollars in our community.”

Lyman Lovejoy, Chairman St. Clair County Industrial Development Board said, “The St. Clair County Industrial Development Board is very pleased to see a homegrown business expanding in our county in spite of the current economic climate.  We are glad to help make it possible for companies like Buckner Barrels to create jobs and give back to our community.”

Don Smith, Executive Director of the St. Clair County Economic Development Council

said the EDC has been working with Buckner Barrels for many years.  “They are a quality company and we are happy to see them invest in our community both in their facility and in their charitable giving.  We are glad that they chose to reinvest in St. Clair County, and this reinvestment will make them more competitive so that they can continue to create new opportunities in our area.”