A Wayne County manufacturer plans to undertake a big expansion and add hundreds of jobs.
The announcement came from Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday who says that IEC Electronics will invest more than $20 million to relocate and construct a new state of the art facility in Newark. They also plan to create up to 362 new jobs.
Cuomo says the company had considered moving out of the state, but chose to remain with the help they got from New York. That help includes up to a $2 million grant from Empire State Development and up to $3 million through the Excelsior Jobs Program in exchange for job creation commitments.
The president and CEO for IEC Electronics, Jeff Schlarbaum, says his companyhas been seeing increasing demand for the contract electronic manufacturing that it does. But in order to keep pace, they have to build a new plant.
“The facility that we operate in today, dates back to the early 1900s and so the modernization investments that it would take to bring it up to current levels did not make economic sense, so we had to look locally as well as outside the area,” Schlarbaum told WXXI News. He says the increase in employment will likely be ramped up over several years.
Schlarbaum says the incentives offered by New York State and local entities are important, but he's also glad that they can stay in this region because of the access to the local talent pool.
“We wanted to stay given the access to technical talent with the university system we have here; we obviously have a significant pool of skilled labor and professionals that are supporting the business and we have a sense of pride as being an upstate manufacturer for advanced products."
RG&E and NYSEG are offering up to $670,000 in assistance for the project. Wayne County is also providing incentives and officials say Greater Rochester Enterprise was also involved in keeping IEC in the Finger Lakes region.
Village of Newark Mayor Jonathan Taylor says IEC has been in the village since the early 1970s, and he's thrilled about this expansion.
"I believe 75 percent of their workforce comes within less than 10 miles or 5 miles, something to that effect, so, it is a huge boost for our economy, to bring those jobs here, to have those people come into our community every day, who come in from outside, and it's great for everyone."
Officials say the expansion plan will also help retain 463 other jobs at the new, 150,000 square foot facility at the Silver Hill Technology Park.
IEC plans to move into the new facility in mid-2019.
