Rolls of toilet paper come off the assembly line after being made into long rolls and being cut down to size. This section of the line allows a worker to visually inspect the rolls to ensure they’re up to quality standard and remove any rolls that don’t meet those standards. Failed rolls are then broken down and recycled back into the start of the process.

Chris Everett, Converting Operations Manager for the Circleville Plant, explains the process of how the large rolls of paper are turned into toilet paper rolls through a series of assembly line machines while Marco Lombardi looks on. The toilet paper starts out on human sized rolls where it’s then transferred onto a long standard sized roll before it’s cut into several pieces to make the size used in homes.

Rolls of toilet paper come off the assembly line after being made into long rolls and being cut down to size. This section of the line allows a worker to visually inspect the rolls to ensure they’re up to quality standard and remove any rolls that don’t meet those standards. Failed rolls are then broken down and recycled back into the start of the process.

Chris Everett, Converting Operations Manager for the Circleville Plant, explains the process of how the large rolls of paper are turned into toilet paper rolls through a series of assembly line machines while Marco Lombardi looks on. The toilet paper starts out on human sized rolls where it’s then transferred onto a long standard sized roll before it’s cut into several pieces to make the size used in homes.

CIRCLEVILLE — The Sofidel Production Facility in Circleville celebrated 10 years in America last month, as did the entire American branch of the company, with an employee celebration and a look for media behind the curtain of what goes on.

Sofidel CEO Luigi Lazzareschi shared their experiences in America over the last 10 years. Since the Circleville plant opened in 2018, they’ve grown their workforce from about 107 to now up over 480 people.

“We’ve had big growth,” he said. “We’re mostly at full capacity, although there is space to increase it.”

Lazzareschi said the demand for labor is currently very high and like all companies finding people to fill vacancies isn’t easy.

“I believe this company remains an attractive one with growth and potential Sofidel can give you in terms to use your knowledge and abilities and is a good springboard to improve your career,” he said. “This is not the only site we have in the U.S. We have six operations and the company continues to grow for people and opportunity for people to climb the ladder.”

Lazzareschi said the celebrated with a factory tour for families and a family fun event.

“It’s a way to celebrate our time in the U.S. but it’s also to celebrate our people and their families,” he said. “I could do a lot but alone I cannot do much.”

Lazzareschi said in their time in America they’re still growing and learning.

“It’s been 10 years of learning everyday how to approach the market to handle the operations, have a good relationship with our employees and the local communities, all stakeholders,” he said. “That can be complicated for a company this size, if we were smaller it would be much easier. Today we’re the largest and most technologically advanced factories.”

Lazzareschi said with their existing capacity they’re looking to hire about 10 percent more people and go above 500 people soon.

“This site has been designed from the beginning to evolve in the future,” he said. “It’s too soon to say when. The idea was to do it in a 10 year time. It’s only 2022 so we have some time. It all depends on the market, the demand, and what our competators do. We’re involved in other sites but I believe we can maintain what we said four years ago.”

Fabio Vitali, vice president of marketing for Sofidel, said since the inauguration event in 2018 they’ve added more lines and additional equipment in their various sections of the plant.

“There are these two new machines that are serving more businesses,” he said. “The strategy that we have in the market is very effective and we’ve had that expansion.”

Lazzareschi said the market has welcomed them. While contracts prohibit the company from stating who the serve exactly, they could say the sell their own product lines on Amazon and in Weigmans Food Market stores in the northeast as well as many of the larger U.S. retailers where they serve 7 of the 8.

“We’re serving most of the largest customers nationwide,” he said.

Lazzareschi said during the COVID-19 pandemic when people were panic buying things like toilet paper they were able to weather that demand.

“The shortage ended when the vaccine came on the market and people stopped panicking and returned to consuming what they normally bought,” he said. “Some people bought toilet paper for two years.”

Marco Lombardi, site operations manager for Sofidel in Circleville said locally they’re building relationships with the community.

“We hire as much as possible from the local area, most of our employees are from Circleville,” he said. “I push as much as possible our new hires to become our new manager generation. For example our biggest department here, production and converting, is over 200 people. There are technical specialists, supervisors and managers and only one person was not from an operator position.”

Lombardi said they’ve got a special program with Miami (OH) University and they Logan Elm who have had students come for a visit.

“We try to hire from them as much as possible.”

Lombardi said sometimes they have people leave the company, building on their skills and taking leadership positions elsewhere.

“We build some confidence that they can take somewhere else,” he said.

Vitali said it goes even beyond production line staff.

“There are careers other than manufacturing, like IT and HR,” he said. “There are more people in HR in Circleville than there are in Philadelphia where our headquarters are. There are mechanics, electricians, product specialists. There are a lot of other opportunities.”

Lazzareschi said at the end of the day they’re happy to have come to Circleville.

“We are happy to be here, happy to have the growth that we’re having and happy to learn everyday how to be better,” he said.

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