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No Comments [ Add Comment ]Barnes Aerospace to move to BDO
By Jeff DeMossOGDEN --
Barnes Aerospace will double its local manufacturing capacity in the next year with the construction of a new, 120,000-square-foot facility at Business Depot Ogden, the company announced Tuesday.
Barnes already employs about 175 at an Ogden facility, 1483 W. 2550 South, which manufactures and repairs products used in aircraft engines and frames, as well as land-based industrial gas turbines.
The new plant, to be built at the northwest corner of Depot Drive and 1050 South, will perform the same type of work, but will be twice as large as the existing one.
All current employees will be relocated to the new facility, which is slated for completion in the first quarter of 2008, Barnes Spokesman Stephen McKelvey said.
McKelvey said there is no set number of new jobs coming as a result of the expansion, and new hiring at the facility will be tied to company growth.
"We regularly evaluate our staffing needs," he said. "We don't have a specific number we can give."
Barnes Aerospace considered other sites for the expansion, including Singapore, where it already has operations.
"The decision to stay in Ogden is based on our long-term presence there and its proximity to our major customers," McKelvey said. "There's also a highly skilled and dedicated work force there."
The company's clients range from major commercial airlines to the U.S. Air Force, which has one of its three major aircraft maintenance operations at Hill Air Force Base.
Also attracting Barnes to Ogden were financial incentives at the state and local levels.
In December, the Governor's Office of Economic Development approved up to $10 million in incremental tax rebates and state industrial assistance funds over a 20-year period for Barnes to expand locally and bring more than 600 new, high-paying jobs to the area.
"We wanted to incent them to grow here over a longer period of time," said Mike Nelson, managing director of corporate recruiting and incentives for GOED. "There are a lot of other places they could have gone."
Ogden City also offered $1.6 million through its Redevelopment Agency in the form of free land at BDO and money for improvements to the new facility, said Dave Harmer, community and economic development director for the city.
Barnes is expected to invest about $12 million in the project.
Barnes Aerospace is one of three divisions of Barnes Group Inc., which was established in Ogden in 1989 when it purchased Flameco Engineering.
In addition to Ogden, the division has operations in Connecticut, Ohio, Michigan, Arizona, Singapore and the United Kingdom. Sales at Barnes Aerospace were $91.2 million in the first quarter of 2007, up 36 percent from $66.9 million in the same period a year earlier.
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