Lee’s Pigskin Company will expand its operations from New Hebroninto the vacant McLain Building under a lease finalized byMonticello aldermen Tuesday night.

“It will be used as a warehouse and storage facility, at leastinitially,” said Mayor David Nichols.

Operations at the building may be expanded in the future to addsome pork rind production at the site, he said.

The expansion will create between 12 and 20 jobs within a12-month period of Lee’s Pigskin moving into the building, Nicholssaid.

“It will be a few months before they can move in,” he said. “Wehave to make some modifications to the building.”

The McLain Building has been vacant for nearly a decade, sinceKellwood Manufacturing closed down in the early 1990s, Nicholssaid.

Several attempts to lease the building have been made duringthat time, but none were successful.

“This has been in development for about 18 months,” the mayorsaid.

Attempts to contact company owner Greg Stanton Wednesday morningwere unsuccessful.

The expansion into the McLain Building will be the Lee’s PigskinCompany’s fourth since it moved to Lawrence County in 2000 and itssecond in two years. It was incorporated in 1988 in neighboringJefferson Davis County.

A fire nearly destroyed the company’s New Hebron plant nearlytwo years ago, but it has returned stronger than before.

The Feb. 16, 2005, fire heavily damaged the facility and causedmore than $1.2 million in damages to the building and equipment.Limited production on some products resumed a week after the fireand full production resumed two months later.

Stanton said earlier this year that sales dipped for a shorttime after the fire because of the lack of production, but thecompany posted record sales and actually doubled its sale in thepast year.

Since the fire, the company’s growth has been so rapid, Stantonsaid, that in March the company made its third expansion sincemoving to Lawrence County, adding four new packaging lines at acost of about $1.6 million.

The company ships its products to 13 states, Stanton said. Theirlargest customers are in the Southeast, but also include Texas,Louisiana and Arkansas.

The company sells six flavors of pork rinds – salt and vinegar,barbecue, hot, plain, salsa and sour cream – and three types ofcracklings – pork cracklings, seasoned strips and curls.