Kimberly-Clark confirmed plans to shut down its Conway paper mill, which employs about 350 people.

"It impacts those families and makes a big difference there," Mark Preston says.

Preston is the Executive Director of the Arkansas Development Economic Commission. He says Thursday's news comes after Wisconsin essentially outbid Arkansas to retain a larger Kimberly-Clark presence through nearly $25 million dollars in tax incentives.

"What it came down to they were able to renegotiate a contract with a union there in Wisconsin," Preston says.

"They agreed to some lower wages; couple that with the incentives the state of Wisconsin was able to put at it. it was just beyond anything we were able to do."

The Conway plant parking lot remained empty much of the day Thursday.

The layoffs there will happen over a two-year period.

Those layoffs hit close to home for many including the Conway mayor.

Bart Castleberry released a statement saying he has a high school friend who works with him at city hall and that friend's spouse lost their job Thursday.

Kimberly-Clark also has a manufacturing plant in Maumelle.