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| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | ||||||
| 3 | Representatives wish to recognize the 50th anniversary of the | ||||||
| 4 | construction of the Diageo plant in Plainfield; and
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| 5 | WHEREAS, The original 150,000 square foot facility was | ||||||
| 6 | built by the Distillers Company Ltd. on 33 acres, north of the
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| 7 | Village of Plainfield; the original facility employed 85 | ||||||
| 8 | employees and had three production lines, two gin stills, and
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| 9 | one vodka processing column; the site was capable of producing | ||||||
| 10 | up to 7,000 cases a day; and
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| 11 | WHEREAS, For over 30 years, the facility remained a | ||||||
| 12 | relatively small operation, primarily producing Gordon's Gin
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| 13 | and Gordon's Vodka; it barely survived the deadly 1990 | ||||||
| 14 | Plainfield Tornado; the site's future dramatically changed
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| 15 | with the formation of Diageo in 1997 and the introduction of | ||||||
| 16 | Smirnoff Vodka to the facility a year
later; and
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| 17 | WHEREAS, On September 10, 2001, Plainfield celebrated the | ||||||
| 18 | opening of its 90,000 square foot Smirnoff ICE facility,
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| 19 | increasing the site's annual production capability by 12 | ||||||
| 20 | million cases; the following day, September 11, 2001, the men | ||||||
| 21 | and women of Plainfield mourned with the rest of the country
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| 22 | and did their part to help relief efforts through the Diageo | ||||||
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| 1 | Spirit of America Fund; when a major flood struck the area in | ||||||
| 2 | 2013, Diageo decided to close down operations in order to work | ||||||
| 3 | on sandbagging efforts and to provide food and water to the | ||||||
| 4 | many
volunteers working to prevent further flooding; and
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| 5 | WHEREAS, Today, after several multi-million-dollar site | ||||||
| 6 | expansions over the past 15 years, the Plainfield plant
is | ||||||
| 7 | Diageo's premier North America manufacturing facility with 10 | ||||||
| 8 | production lines generating
millions of cases annually and | ||||||
| 9 | employing hundreds of citizens in the Will County area; the | ||||||
| 10 | plant is also home to such great brands as Captain
Morgan, | ||||||
| 11 | Crown Royal, and Bulleit; and
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| 12 | WHEREAS, For the past 50 years, Diageo employees have been | ||||||
| 13 | proud of what they do to help people
responsibly celebrate | ||||||
| 14 | life, every day, everywhere; therefore, be it
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| 15 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | ||||||
| 16 | HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | ||||||
| 17 | recognize the 50th anniversary of the Diageo plant in | ||||||
| 18 | Plainfield, and we wish it many more years of success; and be | ||||||
| 19 | it further
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| 20 | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | ||||||
| 21 | presented to the employees of the Diageo plant in Plainfield as | ||||||
| 22 | a symbol of our respect and esteem.
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