State offers Millipore Sigma $1.25 million
Incentives require keeping jobs, adding 175 more
SHEBOYGAN FALLS A global chemicals manufacturer and life sciences company could get up to $1.25 million in tax credits to build an 80,000-squarefoot addition to a chemical plant in eastern Sheboygan County.
MilliporeSigma could earn those incentives if it invests a promised more than $60 million to build the expansion. It also has to keep the Sheboyganarea facility’s existing workers and add about 175 new ones, Gov. Scott Walker said at the ceremonial groundbreaking Tuesday.
“As you can see, we don’t rest in Wisconsin,” Walker told the roughly 100 people gathered for the event. “We’re always building new stuff, making new things happen.”
MilliporeSigma is the North American branch of Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany. The company already operates a factory just south of Sheboygan Falls, where about 500 workers specialize in producing a variety of chemicals.
The proposed addition at the site is expected to add specialties in producing flavors, fragrances, stains and dyes, and is expected to make way for about 175 new jobs, said MilliporeSigma CEO Udit Batra.
The company also operates sites in the Madison and Milwaukee areas, and MilliporeSigma’s global footprint includes nearly 20,000 workers and 65 manufacturing sites, according to its corporate website.
“In that large global network,” Batra said, “Wisconsin indeed has a special place.”
Construction had already begun by Tuesday’s groundbreaking ceremony. Batra said work could wrap up by next year.
“MilliporeSigma is one of the major companies in Sheboygan County and one of our leading employers,” said Sara Spicer, attraction marketing specialist with the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corp. and one of several speakers at Tuesday’s ceremony.
Spicer thanked the company’s leaders for expanding its local footprint.
“We’re not only retaining jobs, we’re keeping our young professionals here. Whether it’s part of the construction team or whether it’s part of your industry, we’re keeping Sheboygan alive, and we thank you for that.”
SARA SPICER, SHEBOYGAN COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP.
“We wouldn’t have family-sustaining wages if it wasn’t for companies like this here in our county,” she said.
“We’re not only retaining jobs, we’re keeping our young professionals here,” she added, pointing to the construction crews already moving dirt at MilliporeSigma’s campus. “Whether it’s part of the construction team or whether it’s part of your industry, we’re keeping Sheboygan alive, and we thank you for that.”
News of the development comes a little more than a month after the state announced plans to lure an even larger new factory to Wisconsin. Walker and Foxconn Technology Group CEO Terry Gou in July signed a memorandum of understanding putting the Taiwanese tech firm in line for up to $3 billion in state incentives in return for a proposed $10 billion factory specializing in making electronics parts.