A Cleveland-based manufacturing company will open a new industrial facility in Slidell that is expected to produce 40 new jobs with annual salaries of $100,000 or more assembling and servicing industrial gears and gearboxes.
Louisiana Economic Development said Thursday that Cleveland-based Horsburgh & Scott Company's 32,000-square-foot facility will also create 57 indirect new jobs and represents a $4.9 milion capital investment.
The plant is in the former Dana Inc. building on Town Center Parkway at Old Spanish Trail, Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer said. It will begin operations April 1. The site is also across the street from the $40 million Amazon distribution center expected to open later this year.
H&S Co.'s gears and gearboxes are used in the defense industry.
The company has a new defense contract and there is increased demand for its products and services. It wanted a location in the Gulf Coast region to meet that demand, the state said.
“The H&S Slidell Service Center will assemble U.S. Naval propulsion drives that will be responsible for protecting the sovereignty of our nation and U.S. allies,” Randy Burdick, CEO of the Horsburgh & Scott Company, said in the news release.
Thursday's announcement comes a couple weeks after a cold storage company, Agile Cold Storage, announced it would build a $46 million, 150,000-square-foot cold storage warehouse and distribution center in Pearl River.
Slidell has a long history with government- and defense-related companies.
In 1962, NASA opened a 121,000-square-foot computer complex at Robert and Gause boulevards that fostered deep ties between the city and the space agency. And for years, Textron produced armored vehicles for the military at a facility in Slidell.
And during World War II, Canulette Shipbuilding Co. built ships for the Navy at a site on Bayou Bonfouca.
"Horsburgh & Scott's investment is part of an encouraging economic trend in St. Tammany Parish," Michael Hecht, president and CEO of Greater New Orleans, Inc., said in a statement, adding that the new facility will strenghten the region's ties to the military, "which currently operates five bases in southeast Louisiana.”
LED said in a news release that the incentives included a $500,000 performance-based grant form the Cleco Fund, as well as the comprehensive workforce development solutions of LED FastStart. The company is also expected to take advantage of the state’s job training programs, LED said.
"The creation of these well-paying jobs will benefit Louisiana’s skilled manufacturing workers, their children and grandchildren, which in turn helps our communities continue to thrive,” said LED Secretary Susan B. Bourgeois.
Cromer and St. Tammany economic development leaders welcomed the new business development in Slidell.
"I am thrilled that a company like Horsburgh & Scott, a major defense contractor and international manufacturer for a wide range of industries, sees the value of investing in and bringing quality jobs to our community,” Cromer said.