OGDEN — ENVE Composites, an Ogden-based maker of high-end bicycle components, will expand its local manufacturing facility to bring 324 more jobs to Utah using tax incentives from the state.
Many of those jobs, CEO Sarah Lehman said, could be from China, where the company currently makes parts.
“With this incentive, we will be in position to expand our manufacturing and bring back some of those jobs to the Ogden area and compete with low-cost alternatives,” she said Thursday.
Michael Sullivan, of the Governors Office of Economic Development, said the state is encouraging the company to expand in Utah by offering it tax incentives worth $1,336,424, or 25 percent of new state tax revenues collected from the company over the incentive’s lifetime.
ENVE composites currently employs about 70 people in its offices at Business Depot Ogden. Lehman said the company is still trying to decide whether to construct a new building or lease space, and she said the location is not yet settled.
She said the company “will look at BDO, and we certainly want to expand our BDO facility.”
ENVE makes wheels, forks, seat posts, handlebars and handlebar stems, along with composite tubes, for custom-bicycle frame builders.
The new jobs, primarily manufacturing and production, will require workers to have skills in working with carbon fiber, but company spokesman Jake Pantone said the company does train workers.
Sullivan said the company has been in Utah since 2005. It has agreed to hire workers at a minimum of 125 percent of the current Weber County average wage, which is $34,762.
That means, he said, the company jobs will start at $43,452, which he said can include benefits, but all jobs are required to have full benefits.
He said that over the seven-year life of the project, ENVE will pay more than $63 million in new wages. During the same time period, the company will pay $5.3 million in new taxes.
Lehman said the company has already started hiring, but how quickly it fills all the 324 positions depends on how quickly it can ramp up production.
Ogden Mayor Mike Caldwell praised the announcement.
He said in a news release, “ENVE’s decision to expand within Ogden’s Outdoor Recreation Cluster was based on their thorough evaluation of all regional and international expansion options. We’re extremely pleased that Ogden won. ENVE is an important business partner to Ogden.”
Comments