Big News For Ohio Manufacturing
Posted November 1, 2013 & filed under References
As the month of October comes to a close, we’ve decided to take a look back at some of the happenings in the Ohio manufacturing sector. Here are some of the big stories for the month.
• Nestlé is relocating its frozen pizza division from its current home in Illinois to the Cleveland suburbs. Nestle has 2,500 Ohioans in its workforce but expects to add about 250 jobs after the move takes place. The decision was made to coincide with the planned development of an R&D center in Solon by early 2015, closing the distance between the plant and frozen/chilled foods research division that will improve brands like DiGiorno, California Pizza Kitchen, Tombstone, and Jack’s.
• Halliburton announced that it was relocating all operations from their former home in Lewis County, WV to its new facility in Zanesville Ohio. The oil and gas giant is moving over the rest of its operations after the shift to Zanesville about three months prior.
• The Tax Foundation released a report that ranks Ohio 39th in a state-by-state analysis of tax conditions. It is significantly behind Wyoming, which provides one of the best tax climates based on the five major taxation criteria: corporate, individual, sales, unemployment, and property. Ohio fared well in the unemployment insurance tax category (ranking in 10th place) but averaged no higher than 20th in any of the others.
• Battelle, an R&D firm based out of Columbus has partnered up with the University of Hawaii to bring to market an unmanned robotic vessel that can safely explore waterways in the event of a disaster. The unmanned vessel is meant to supplement the work of first-responders, ensuring that an area is safe before human rescue crews are permitted to proceed. Employees in this facility will work alongside UH researches and students to prototype and unveil this state-of-the-art vessel.
By James Walsh
