By Joseph S. Pete, Daily Journal of Johnson County staff writer
One of Greenwood's largest employers is planning a major expansion.
Endress+Hauser has bought 22 acres next to its existing Greenwood campus, which gives the Switzerland-based company room to expand.
The company has tentative plans to spend $68.8 million in the next eight years for a new building, renovating existing buildings and adding machinery, equipment and computer systems.
The expansion is expected to create up to 234 new jobs by 2016. The average salary is projected to be $59,336.
"After a year-long review of our growth needs, we decided to purchase this land to give us the space needed for our expected growth," logistics manager Phil Tumey said in a statement. "Our plans include building investments in the immediate future, as well as investment in our existing facilities."
The expansion is not certain and will depend on the economy and if it affects the company's business, Tumey said. Its U.S. sales are up 10 percent so far this year, even as the economy has slowed down.
Endress+Hauser, which employs nearly 8,000 worldwide, has 274 employees at its Greenwood facility near Pushville Road and U.S. 31. The company designs, makes and sells tools that measure temperatures, levels in tanks and pressure in pipes.
"They're the crown jewel of manufacturing in Greenwood and probably all of Johnson County," Greenwood Mayor Charles Henderson said. "It's great we'll be getting all those jobs. We're really excited about it."
The family-owned company has its U.S. sales and marketing headquarters in Greenwood, where it also manufactures instruments that help its industrial customers more efficiently manage production processes.
Endress+Hauser employs engineers who design a wide range of sensors and instruments that monitor level, flow, pressure and temperature measurements.
The company's focus is on the development on new products.
"These are highly skilled, highly sought-after jobs by graduates of Indiana University, Purdue University, Franklin College and other universities," said Mitch Frazier, a spokesman for the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
When the company relocated its U.S. operations to Greenwood in 1974, Endress+Hauser employed eight workers in a 5,000-square-foot facility.
Now five business divisions operate in three buildings on the 58-acre Endress+Hauser campus. The $68.8 expansion project will retrofit existing buildings to streamline operations, at an estimated cost of $3.2 million.
The project being planned is just the company's latest investment. More than $19 million was spent on its new electromagnetic flow meter facility, which is one-of-a-kind in the United States, spokeswoman Kathleen Spinder said. There, the company manufacturers and calibrates flow meters that measure a wide array of materials, including wastewater and yogurt.
Company officials believed that the Greenwood campus's growth had occurred in too hodge-podge a fashion and wanted to be more strategic, Tumey said. So they hired Indianapolis-based consultant Genovis to assess future needs and design a plan for growth over the next decade, which has been under review for past year.
Endress+Hauser plans to construct a $34.5 million building for its level and pressure product lines, Tumey said. The sales staff would move into a larger space once the facility was built.
Sales have been driving the company's growth and are especially strong in international markets such as Canada and Brazil, Tumey said. Endress+Hauser sells to a large number of industries, including chemical/petrochemical, food and beverage, water/wastewater and life sciences.
Sales increased by 11 percent last year and have grown by an average of 20 percent most years, Tumey said.
"Today's customer is highly sophisticated," general manager for U.S. sales and services Todd Lucey said in a statement. "Our customer is not only looking to us to provide the best quality product, but they demand the best service and support throughout the product's life cycle.
"With our growth plans, we intend to keep Endress+Hauser at the forefront - with the best people, processes and facilities to help our customers compete today and in the future."
The project will include $29 million in new machinery and equipment for all five business divisions.Endress+Hauser expects to finish construction of a $34.5 million building, renovate existing buildings and hire 234 new employees by 2016, according to the plans it filed.
"Anytime you have this quality of jobs created by an existing company who's shown willingness to hire locally, that's a positive thing," city council member Bruce Armstrong said. "This shows that even in difficult economic times, Greenwood is still a good place for a company to expand. We're fortunate to have a company like this who will create good-paying jobs and has a record of hiring locally."
The new jobs will pay an average significantly higher than the median county wage of $31,054, Johnson County Development Corp. executive director Cheryl Morphew said.
People often get more excited when new companies decided to relocate to and invest in an area, but existing companies such as Endress+Hauser are most often the vehicle for economic growth, she said.
The company is asking the city for a tax abatement, or a phasing in of property taxes on the new property and equipment over the next 10 years. Such tax breaks are designed to serve as an incentive for job creation and offset the cost of the initial investment.
Endress+Hauser's new investment will create an additional $6 million in property tax revenue over the next 10 years, even with a tax abatement, company officials estimate.
The state also will offer incentives, such as training grants, Frazier said.