Ohio-based
Voigt & Schweitzer LLC continues its geographic expansion with its first push into the South, announcing plans to build a $10 million hot dip galvanizing plant north of Memphis that is expected to create 45 new jobs. The new plant will go up as part of a brownfield redevelopment at the former site for Chromasco.
“We chose Memphis because had a lot of customers in the area looking for our experience and the quality we provide,” says Voigt & Schweitzer VP of Operations Bob Messler, who began looking at properties in Memphis more than three years ago with the help of the Greater Memphis Chamber. “Being in Memphis will also give us great access to the surrounding states.”
The company, which also operates in Delaware, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Oklahoma, will construct an industrial building measuring nearly 75,000-square foot building on Fite Road south of the Memphis International Raceway.
Operating as V&S Memphis Galvanizing LLC, the company bought 30 acres of a vacant 93.6-acre parcel last fall from Timminco Properties Inc. for $325,000. The site is being excavated now and foundations will be in place next week.
“We’re revitalizing the area, and we’re in the neighborhood to stay,” says Messler. “We hope that someone else will come along and invest in some of the other 60 acres that are available at the site, creating even more jobs that could help the local economy.”
Voigt & Schweitzer will hire 25 to 30 people by the time it opens the new facility in early October, including management, foremen, plant managers, truck drivers, maintenance workers, office help and salespeople. Its local staff will grow to 45 or more in two to three years, and as much as 95 percent of the employees at the plant will come from the local area.
Hot dip galvanizing is a process of coating iron, steel or aluminum with a layer of zinc that was invented by French chemist Paul Jacques Malouin in 1742. Today galvanized materials are found in huge variety of structures, such as bridges and highways, water and wastewater treatment plants, parking garages, pulp and paper plants, electrical utilities, cell towers, rail transportation, stadiums, arenas, and racetracks.
By Michael Waddell
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