Fantus invests $1.6 million into Skokie plant

SKOKIE - P.S. Greetings, Inc. D/b/a Fantus Paper Products (Fantus) joined with the village of Skokie Friday to announce a $1.6 million investment in sophisticated machinery, infrastructure improvements and additional warehousing at its Skokie location.

The investment, dedicated to supporting Fantus' line of made-in-the-USA Holiday Gift Boxes for Walmart, will result in more than 30 new jobs at Fantus - tripling the number of employees at the company's Skokie facility - as well as an estimated 30 service and construction jobs.

"We're incredibly proud to partner with Walmart to re-shore a portion of its Holiday Gift Box offering and support American jobs," said Mark McCracken, president of Fantus Paper Products/P.S. Greetings, Inc. "For more than 60 years, we've worked to facilitate made-in-the-USA products and have prioritized hiring and training local workers, including the new employees hired as a result of this investment."

The $1.6 million investment is made in conjunction with Walmart's 10-year commitment to buy an additional $250 billion in products supporting American jobs. Based on data from Boston Consulting Group, it's estimated that 1 million new U.S. jobs will be created through Walmart's initiative, including direct manufacturing job growth of approximately 250,000 and indirect job growth of approximately 750,000 in the support and service sectors.

Fantus has been a dedicated Walmart supplier for more than 30 years, producing Holiday Gift Boxes and more than 100 million greeting cards every year for the retailer. The Fantus manufacturing facility currently provides jobs for 120 skilled assemblers, nearly 30 percent of which directly support production for Walmart.