On a recent swing through Carroll County, Maryland Commerce Secretary Mike Gill celebrated the success of three Maryland companies. First stop was EVAPCO Inc., an employee-owned manufacturer located in Taneytown. Bill Jones, EVAPCO’s Senior Vice President of Global Operations, provided an overview of the company and led a tour of the facility.
Founded in Baltimore in 1976, EVAPCO has been headquartered in Taneytown since 1991. There – and in two other U.S. facilities – the company manufactures products for the commercial HVAC, industrial process, power, and industrial refrigeration markets.
EVAPCO, which operates a research center in the Taneytown headquarters, is known for innovations like Pulse~Pure® and Evapco Extra-Pak Ice Coils®. An environmentally-friendly water treatment product, Pulse~Pure® uses pulsed electric fields rather than chemicals to treat water. The Evapco Extra-Pak® Ice Coils build ice on coils’ tubes at night, when energy rates are lower, then use the stored energy for cooling during the day.
EVAPCO’s 450 employees in Taneytown are part of a global workforce of more than 3,000.
Next up was a visit to Advanced Thermal Batteries (ATB) in Westminster, where Secretary Gill joined CEO Guy Chagnon and ATB employees to celebrate the opening of the company’s new facility. ATB, a wholly-owned subsidiary of France-based ASB Group, manufactures thermal batteries for munitions, missile, and space programs. The parent company invested close to $7.5 million to acquire and outfit the Westminster property for ATB, and Maryland Commerce provided a $125,000 loan through the Maryland Economic Development Assistance Authority and Fund (MEDAAF).
During the ribbon-cutting celebration, Mr. Chagnon thanked both the state and the county, noting “We would not be here without you.” The new facility in Westminster features two dry rooms and state-of-the-art equipment, offering ATB plenty of room to expand – and the company intends to do just that. Plans include adding a third clean room, additional presses, and other equipment and, by 2019, another 25 new jobs – nearly doubling its current workforce of approximately 30 people.
FR Conversions rounded out the Carroll County tour. Founded six years ago by Eli Rosenbloom, the company makes mobility affordable by converting standard vans to accommodate those with special needs. The company recently unveiled a new Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid taxi, which FR Conversions has modified.
The move to Carroll County – and FR Conversions’ investment of more than $20 million in capital improvements – provides plenty of room for expansion to convert buses and emergency vehicles. FR Conversions plans to hire as many as 400 new employees, and the state has approved a $1 million conditional loan tied to job creation.
To attract even more companies, jobs, and residents, the City of Westminster is building the Westminster Fiber Network which will eventually connect the entire city to an ultra-high-speed fiber optic network. A public-private partnership, it’s the first community-wide gigabit fiber network in the Mid-Atlantic. A pilot project has already been completed and construction of Phase 1 is scheduled to begin this month. Over the next year, nearly 3,000 homes and businesses will be connected.
The post Commerce Secretary Mike Gill Tours Carroll County appeared first on MDBIZNews.
from https://mdbiznews.commerce.maryland.gov/2016/07/commerce-secretary-mike-gill-tours-carroll-county/
No comments:
Post a Comment