Oakdale, LA. – (November 30, 2018) – The 10-year tax exemption for Martco L.L.C.’s Oakdale, La., oriented strand board (OSB) manufacturing plant has ended and, on December 3, 2018, company officials plan to present a multimillion-dollar payment to Allen Parish Sheriff and Tax Collector Doug Hebert at the Allen Parish Police Jury meeting in Oberlin, La.
In 2006, Allen Parish government entities granted Martco, dba RoyOMartin, an industrial tax exemption for property taxes covering 2007 through 2017. This action sparked RoyOMartin’s investment of over $234 million for the construction of a state-of-the-art OSB facility, providing 174 direct jobs. Of those, 105 are currently held by Allen Parish residents. Additionally, more than 600 indirect jobs are supported by the plant.
OSB is a wood product used in residential and commercial construction projects, furniture, and other applications. Since opening, the Oakdale facility has produced more than 8.12 billion square feet, 3/8” basis, of OSB—enough to supply about 850,000 houses in the United States. Servicing the plant are the City of Oakdale for water and sewer, the City of Elizabeth for natural gas, and Beauregard Electric for power.
RoyOMartin President, CEO, and CFO Roy O. Martin III stated, “Our Oakdale OSB team is committed and competent. These professionals are at the center of our success, safely running our facility at over 100% of design capacity. We sincerely thank the Allen Parish Police Jury, school board, assessor’s office, sheriff’s department, and citizens for our 11-year relationship, and we look forward to continuing to work together in the many decades ahead.”
“As a parish, we are very excited about the RoyOMartin plant coming onto the tax rolls,” stated Allen Parish Police Jury President Matthew Fontenot. “We appreciate our partnership with RoyOMartin and will put these funds toward several different taxing entities within Allen Parish to meet the various needs of our citizens.”
“Having RoyOMartin choose to locate in Allen Parish has been a tremendous benefit to the parish,” added Hebert. “They have been an incredible supporter of our community, not only by creating jobs and economic development, but they have continually partnered in programs and initiatives to support our local communities. RoyOMartin has truly been an example of a corporate-community partnership.”
“In addition to providing several hundred jobs to our region, RoyOMartin is very supportive of our education system,” stated Allen Parish School Board Superintendent Michael Doucet. “In fact, thirty percent of the Oakdale plant’s workforce is hired from their WoodWorks program in surrounding high schools. Through that curriculum and their ongoing programming, such as providing class speakers and plant tours, RoyOMartin helps to ensure that our students are work-ready upon graduation.”
