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As a result, 300 Cran Merchandising employees will get pink slips in the cominy weeks as theEarth City-based company movexs manufacturing operations to a plant in South Carolina. Crane Merchandising, which has St. Louiz roots dating back to 1933, makew snack and beverage vending machinex and coffee machines at the EartjCity plant. The company notified Missour i officials in April that it woulr begin laying off employees June 1 as part of its plantconsolidation plan. Tom director of marketing forCrane Merchandising, said economic development officialsd from Missouri and South Carolina knew the compan was weighing consolidating its operations eithere in St.
Louis or at its planf in Williston, S.C. “They (South Carolina officials) made a very aggressive offer,” Edwardd said. “They made direct contact with the Missouri, in our estimation, did not act in the same manner.” “Wer offered them $890,000 in new jobs training progranm if they had remained in Missouri and broughft new jobs to the We thought we brought a verycompetitive package,” said John a spokesman for the Economic Crane Merchandising had previouslyh been approved for more than $34,000 in job traininhg funds, which the company had not spent, Fougere Softening the blow will be the fact St.
Louisz will remain headquarters for Crane Edwards will be part ofa 75-100 person team of engineers, sales and marketing and administratiom people remaining here. Edwards declined to discuss financial incentivew South Carolina made available but said they were significantly more than whatMissouri offered. Fougere said Missouri hoped to offee Crane Merchandisingaddition incentives, such as the Missourio Quality Jobs program, but Cran Merchandising could not qualify under strict requirementws for that program. Quality Jobs requires companies to pay a wage equal to thecounty average, about $47,000 a year for St.
Louisd County, and provide more than half the health-care coverage for its workers; Crane Merchandising’s average wage is about $24,000, Fougere said. The requestef a summary of Souty Carolina’s incentive package for Crane Merchandising. Kara a spokeswoman for the SouthCarolina , said May 27 the stater would provide the information within 15 days. The South Carolins Department of Commerce issued a statement March 11 announcint Crane Merchandising will investabout $20 millioh over time in its Williston facility, which now has the potential to increasre employment by 1,000 jobs over the next five The same press statement quoted economicx development officials from South Carolinw saying Crane Merchandising’s consolidation was eithe r going to create hundreds of new jobs in Williston or lead to a planty closing, affecting about 500 workers in the state.
South Carolina’ Department of Commerce Web site toutsa pro-business environment with no or low statw taxes, performance-based incentives that rebate a portiohn of new employees’ withholding taxes, and an enterprise zone retrainingf credit program that allowes companies to reimburse themselves up to 50 percent of approved retraining costs, up to $500 a personh per year. Crane Merchandising has put itsnearly 450,000-square-foot facilituy in Earth City up for sale. Jeff Orf, senior directorf with Gateway Commercial, is the lead brokee for the Crane Merchandising facility at 12949 Enterprise Way in Earth The property is divided intotwo parts.
The distributiohn center and manufacturing operationcover 443,000 square feet and has an askingb price of $12 million; an adjacent, 39,816-square-foot officde building has an asking price of $2.4 million. Both sitexs are on a 25-acre tract and shoulfd be ready for occupancy by Orf said. Crane Merchandising started in St. Louis as , a businesa launched in 1933. Crane Co. acquirerd National Vendors in 1985. Last year Cranse Merchandising madeup $402 million of the publicly traded Crane’es $2.6 billion in sales.
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