Abbott: Utilities were key in decision to build in Tipp City
DAYTON, Nov 16, 2012 (Menafn - Dayton Daily News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --Abbott Laboratories' decision to build a 240,000-square-foot plant in Tipp City didn't rest primarily on development incentive dollars, a company executive said Friday.
Bryan Stirrat, Abbott's program management director for Abbott's Nutritional Supply Chain Division, said the three final sites considered for the plant "miraculously" offered the same "dollar figure" in incentives.
Instead, the decision to build in southern Miami County rested on redundant power, plentiful water and the ability to handle the plant's waste.
"Utilities were huge, " Stirrat told a I-70/75 Development Association meeting.
Company leaders weighed building the plant in Tipp City, Franklin, Ind. and in Ontario, Canada.
"This was a regional effort to get Abbott here," said Brad Vath, Tipp City assistant city manager.
The plant off County Road 25A will begin operating next year and could have a third production line 2018 and perhaps a fourth line in early 2020, employing a total of 400 to 450 employees, Stirrat said. And if the plant reaches the right production milestones, about 500 million bottles, that might require the relocation of a supporting bottling facility. But Stirrat said that such a move isn't imminent at the moment.
The plant -- for which ground was broken in April -- received some 9.2 million in incentives. The Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved a 75-percent, 15-year job creation tax credit worth an estimated 8 million. And Tipp City approved an incentives package worth more than 1.2 million, including an agreement to build a new access road.
Stirrat said Abbott -- which will soon undergo a corporate split -- is finding the employees it needs locally. "We've been able to find top talent," he said. "I'm sure there are some companies around the area that aren't happy with us."
The company needs not just line operators, but "operator-mechanics," people who can service the machines they use, such as a 20 million bottle filler machine imported from Japan, he added.
"There will probably be very few minimum wage people there," Stirrat said.
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