The investment in new equipment and technology and building upgrades at INOAC’s facility on Industry Drive in Springfield comes in response to new business to supply products for Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville.
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The 49 new jobs created through the project will include production operators, team leaders and quality and material handling positions. Currently, INOAC employs more than 330 people at the Springfield plant.
The project is scheduled for startup in the fall of 2022.
Opened in Springfield in 1990, INOAC Group North America manufactures thermoset, thermoplastic, elastomeric and emerging material products. The company produces interior products for automotive customers such as Ford, Toyota and Honda.
Products include instrument panels, interior trim, armrests, headrests, noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) components and seat cushioning. INOAC also manufactures materials for the packaging, consumer products, medical, electrical, construction, industrial machinery and IT equipment markets.
The company is a subsidiary of Japan based INOAC Corp., which operates throughout Asia and North America. Currently, nearly 200 Japanese owned manufacturing, service and technology related facilities operate in the commonwealth, employing approximately 47,000 Kentucky residents.
INOAC is among the nearly 5,000 manufacturing related facilities in the state, which employ more than 250,000 people. Kentucky excels as a national leader in manufacturing, with about 13% of its workforce holding a job in the sector compared to the U.S. average of 8.5%.
This year, the commonwealth has shattered every economic development record in the books for yearly investment totals. Year to date, private sector new location and expansion announcements include over $10 billion in total planned investment and commitments to create 15,200 plus full time jobs across the coming years.
Through September, Kentucky’s average incentivized hourly wage is $24.15 before benefits, a 10% increase over the previous year.
To encourage investment and job growth in the community, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) in October preliminarily approved a 10 year incentive agreement with the company under the Kentucky Business Investment program. The performance based agreement can provide up to $550,000 in tax incentives based on the company’s investment of $13.7 million and annual targets of:
• Creation and maintenance of 49 Kentucky resident, full time jobs across 10 years; and
• Paying an average hourly wage of $25 including benefits across those jobs. ■