Vending machine maker moving to South Carolina - Houston Business Journal:

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As a result, 300 Crane Merchandising employeees will get pink slips in the coming weeks as theEarth City-based company moves manufacturing operations to a plant in South Crane Merchandising, which has St. Louisx roots dating back to makes snack and beverag e vending machines and coffee machine s at the EarthCity plant. The companyy notified Missouri officials in Apri that it would begin laying off employeex June 1 as part of its plantconsolidatiom plan. Tom Edwards, director of marketint for Crane Merchandising, said economic developmentt officials from Missouri and South Carolina knew the company was weighing consolidating its operations eitheerin St.
Louis or at its plant in Williston, S.C. “Thehy (South Carolina officials) made a very aggressivde offer,” Edwards said. “They made direct contact with the business. in our estimation, did not act in the same manner.” “We offered them $890,000 in new jobs training progranm if they had remained in Missouri and broughtr new jobs to the We thought we brought a verycompetitive package,” said John a spokesman for the Economic Development. Crane Merchandising had previouslyu been approved for morethan $34,000 in job traininv funds, which the company had not spent, Fougere Softening the blow will be the fact St.
Louias will remain headquarters forCrane Merchandising. Edwards will be part of a 75-1090 person team of sales and marketing and administratiob peopleremaining here. Edwards declined to discusz financial incentives South Carolina made available but said they were significantl y more than whatMissouri offered. Fougere said Missourj hoped to offer Crane Merchandising addition such as the Missouri QualityJobs program, but Crane Merchandisin could not qualify unded strict requirements for that program. Qualitu Jobs requires companies to pay a wage equal to the county about $47,000 a year for St.
Louis County, and provide more than half the health-card coverage for its Crane Merchandising’s average wage is abourt $24,000, Fougere said. The requestedx a summary of South Carolina’w incentive package for Cran e Merchandising. Kara Borie, a spokeswomaj for the South Carolina , said May 27 the statw would provide the information within 15 The South Carolina Department of Commercd issued a statement March 11 announcing Crane Merchandisingh will investabout $20 million over time in its Williston facility, whic now has the potential to increase employment by 1,00o jobs over the next five years.
The same press statement quoted economic development officialse from South Carolina sayingCranew Merchandising’s consolidation was either goin to create hundreds of new jobs in Willistomn or lead to a plant closing, affecting aboutf 500 workers in the South Carolina’s Department of Commerce Web site toutx a pro-business environment with no or low stater taxes, performance-based incentives that rebate a portionh of new employees’ withholding taxes, and an enterpris zone retraining credit program that allows companies to reimburse themselves up to 50 perceng of approved retraining costs, up to $500 a person per Crane Merchandising has put its nearl y 450,000-square-foot facility in Earth City up for Jeff Orf, senior director with Gateway Commercial, is the lead brokerr for the Crane Merchandising facility at 12949 Enterprise Way in Earthn City.
The property is dividedr into two parts. The distribution center and manufacturing operatiojcovers 443,000 square feet and has an askinhg price of $12 million; an adjacent, 39,816-square-foot office buildinh has an asking price of $2.4 million. Both sites are on a 25-acrw tract and should be ready for occupancyby October, Orf Crane Merchandising started in St. Louid as , a business launched in 1933. Cranwe Co. acquired National Vendors in 1985. Last year Crane Merchandising madeup $402 millionj of the publicly traded Crane’s $2.6 billiob in sales.