Engineered Plastic Products Inc., an Ypsilanti-based injection molder, will add equipment and staff to its Lima, Ohio, plant.
The automotive supplier currently is using only half of its 110,000-square-foot Lima facility, Allen (County) Economic Development Group President Marcel Wagner said in a recent telephone interview. EPP plans to add equipment and 50-80 jobs beginning this summer. The plant currently employs 123.
Neither EPP Chief Executive Officer Gerald Edwards nor Chief Financial Officer LaRoy Williams was available for comment.
EPP initially selected Lima for development because of the large employable, minority population, and its access to Interstate 75, said Greg Buddelmeyer, treasurer of Shawnee Township schools, in Allen County. EPP is minority-owned.
The firm will receive 100 percent abatement on all new equipment, but will donate 40 percent of that to Shawnee schools.
Buddelmeyer said the jobs the expansion will create are important. The plant used to be owned by Siemens AG.
``When Siemens automotive left, they left 200 people out of work. With the expansion, most of those people can get their jobs back,'' he said. ``When EPP did the initial screening for jobs [in 2003], there were 2,600 applications for over 100 jobs.''
