Ohio-based Nachurs Alpine Solutions has announced plans to renovate a 174,500-square-foot manufacturing facility in Louisiana’s Iberville Parish to produce the company’s liquid fertilizer products and distribute them to agricultural customers in the South and globally.
Nachurs recently purchased a 69-acre parcel of the Ciba-Geigy Corp. site in St. Gabriel, La., and will invest $13.9 million to renovate existing structures at the location. Louisiana Economic Development (LED) estimates the project will create 16 new direct jobs with an average salary of more than $45,700 plus benefits, as well as an additional 44 indirect jobs.
Construction will begin before the end of the year and will be completed by mid-2014, with Nachurs beginning to hire employees during the construction phase. Nachurs is headquartered in Marion, Ohio, and plans to use the St. Gabriel facility to supply customers in Louisiana and the South, as well as export markets.
“Our reasons for locating to the Louisiana site are to better serve and expand our fertilizer and industrial businesses in the South and to have good port access for importing and exporting," said Jeff Barnes, chief financial officer for Nachurs Alpine Solutions. “The Ciba-Geigy site will allow us to undertake new manufacturing processes, and Iberville Parish provides us with a strong workforce.”
Nachurs manufactures and sells liquid fertilizer for a wide variety of agricultural applications, including precision-placed, seed-safe, starter fertilizers for corn, soybean, and wheat. The company also develops liquid fertilizer for canola, alfalfa, potatoes, sugar beets, lentils, and various other fruit and vegetable crops. Nachurs has five other manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Canada, along with 30 product depots for customer convenience.
“Nachurs Alpine Solutions is a prime example of companies selecting Louisiana as the next great state for business investment,” said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who joined Nachurs officials in making the announcement. “Nachurs joins a long list of chemical manufacturers investing in Louisiana because of our world-class energy infrastructure, strong business climate and incomparable workforce. This project also represents the redevelopment of a former industrial site and exemplifies how we continue to make use of our existing assets to attract new career opportunities for Louisiana families."
Ciba-Geigy developed the St. Gabriel location in 1970 as an herbicide production facility, and much of the original site has been retained through mergers involving Syngenta Crop Production Inc. The Iberville Chamber of Commerce, LED, and the Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC) worked with Nachurs to secure additional acreage and identify the site as a prime location on the Mississippi River for the company’s sixth manufacturing facility.
Nachurs is expected to utilize incentives from Louisiana’s Quality Jobs and Industrial Tax Exemption programs to finance the facility’s construction.