WATERLOO - Deere & Co.'s commitment to Waterloo just got $100 million stronger.
Moline, Ill.-based Deere said Wednesday it will invest about $100 million over "the next four to five years" to modernize the Waterloo Foundry as a way to allow the company to "leverage more advanced casting designs and manufacturing technolgies when completed."
The announcement was made in conjunction with the Iowa Department of Economic Development, which voted Wednesday to provide tax incentives to Deere to keep the Waterloo Foundry jobs in Iowa, according to David Everitt, president of Deere's Worldwide Agriculture & Turf Division for North America, Asia, Australia, Sub-Saharan and South Africa, and Global Tractor and Turf Products.
The tax incentives would come under IDED's High Quality Jobs program, said Kay Snyder, the agency's communications director. The program provides qualifying businesses tax credits to offset the cost incurred to locate, expand or modernize an Iowa facility.
The news follows the $125 million Waterloo Works redevelopment plan Deere announced in 2000 that streamlined both its drive-train and tractor manufacturing operations and the $187 million in investments Deere announced in 2008 to increase the manufacturing capacity of the Waterloo Works.
For the moment, anyway, the modernization will mean no additional jobs at Deere's Waterloo operations, said Ken Golden, company spokesman.
"It's not an expansion; it's a modernization, which is different," he said. "It's not expanded space. The investment is more about keeping existing jobs."
Long-term, however, the investment in the Waterloo foundry, on Westfield Avenue, is the stuff of dreams for the region, said Steve Dust, chief executive officer of the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance.
"The technology associated with the foundry operation, as such, meant they had strategic decisions to make at Deere, and the Cedar Valley should be very, very pleased that at the conclusion of the decision-making process, the decision was made to modernize the existing facility and take advantage of the talent in place here, rather than sourcing it elsewhere. And, you have to remember, this is a global company."
The company said the IDED program to retain Iowa jobs was a significant factor in Deere's decision to modernize the John Deere Foundry.
"We evaluated several options for our foundry operations," Richard Czarnecki, global director of Deere's Large Tractor Product Line and new general manager of Deere's Waterloo operations, said in a news release. "This investment allows us to better serve our customers with high-quality, innovative castings. The investment helps John Deere meet customer requirements for more sophisticated designs of large tractors and helps to ensure the company maintains manufacturing flexibility and responsiveness to market demands."
The foundry modernization only strengthens the Cedar Valley's ties to Deere, Dust said.
"This is one that is gong to bring a lot of attention because of the advanced nature of the technology used within the foundry, from not only the metallurgical people but operations people, about how some of these advanced processes are being done in the manufacturing environment," Dust said. "The foundry operations are so global now, it's going to bring a lot of attention to the Cedar Valley economic base again. It just emphasizes again how fortunate we are to have a global competitor like John Deere right here."
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Published by The Courier on www.wcfcourier.com
Posted: Thursday, June 10, 2010 8:30 am
http://wcfcourier.com/business/local/article_af8044c2-73e2-11df-86a9-001cc4c03286.html?mode=story
