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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowElkhart County is getting some jobs, instead of losing them.
Office chair manufacturer Izzy plans to expand its plant north of Middlebury in north-central Indiana, creating 85 new jobs over the next two years and boosting its annual payroll by $3.8 million, local officials said Saturday.
“This announcement comes as a breath of fresh air amidst the recent layoffs and closures we’ve experienced in the RV industry,” said Dorinda Heiden-Guss, president of the Economic Development Corp. of Elkhart County.
The region saw its unemployment rate spike to 15.3 percent in December, up a whopping 10.6 percentage points from December 2007. Some county officials, who learned of an additional 600 RV layoffs earlier this month, say the number now is likely closer to 20 percent.
The region’s reluctant emergence as a symbol for the recession attracted President Barack Obama to visit Elkhart last week to promote his economic stimulus legislation.
Izzy’s expansion is scheduled to begin as soon as April, with 45 new jobs created in the first year and the full 85 over two years, the economic development group said in a news release.
Grand Haven, Mich.-based JSJ Corp., Izzy’s parent company, plans to close a plant in Belton, Texas, and invest about $580,000 in expanding the Middlebury plant, which now employs around 140 workers making chairs under the Harter brand name.
Some of the new workers may come from the Texas plant.
The Elkhart County Council voted Saturday to support a five-year tax phase-in for the expansion, saving the company $23,000. The company also will receive state incentives including job-training funds and tax credits.
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