Tranlin Inc. will repay $5 million to Virginia, as the Chinese company resets its plans to build a paper products factory in Chesterfield County that was expected to bring $2 billion in investment and create 2,000 jobs.
In an exchange of letters with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership in late July, Tranlin’s top executive promised to repay the grant from the Commonwealth’s Development Opportunity Fund by Oct. 24 in acknowledgement that the company would not meet its investment and job commitments by the end of 2019.
“While we are not fully prepared to move forward with our project in Chesterfield County, we are continuing due diligence and planning to advance the project at a future date,” Acting CEO Donald Lan said in a letter on July 26 to Stephen Moret, president and CEO of the state partnership. . . .
Tranlin is a much different company, confronting rapid changes in technology and the market for its products, said Haymore, who as commissioner of agriculture visited a company factory in China with McAuliffe three years ago.
“We have seen them in action,” he said. “We have seen the paper products being made.”
Click to read the full article. BY MICHAEL MARTZ AND JOHN REID BLACKWELL Richmond Times-Dispatch, Aug. 24, 2017.