< Previous58 M I S S I S S I P P I DE V E L OP M E NT G U I DE MISSISSIPPI STATEWIDE FREIGHT PLAN LEGEND SOURCE: ESRI, MDOT.M I S S I S S I P P I DE V E L OP M E N T G U I DE 59 FRENCH IT COMPANY PICKS MARSHALL COUNTY Communications software and technology company Quadient is locating its North American distribution operations in Marshall County, in northern Mississippi. The project represents an $11 million investment, combining land, facilities, construction and corporate eff orts. Quadient will create 75 jobs for its facility. Headquartered in France, Quadient provides technologies for processing and digitizing customer communications, mail, packages, business processes and customer experience management to businesses around the world. The Marshall County facility is in the Gateway Global Logistics Center, which is part of the Chickasaw Trails Industrial Park. “We are excited to be opening our North American distribution operation in Marshall County and look forward to developing strong relationships with the surrounding communities,” said Doug Ward, vice president and general manager of Supply Chain Operations at Quadient. “The new distribution facility will help support the expansion of Quadient parcel lockers and our mission of helping businesses build powerful, meaningful connections with their customers.” In central Mississippi, Amazon will launch a new, state-of-the-art fulfi llment center in Madison County, creating more than 1,000 new, full- time jobs. It will be the fi rst facility in the state to feature Amazon’s innovative robotics technology. The fulfi lment center, which will be located at the Madison County Mega Site, will be Amazon’s fourth Mississippi fulfi llment center. The facility will be at least four stories and will house most of the sortable goods sold by Amazon. Associates will pick, pack and ship customers’ orders alongside robots, allowing for a more effi cient process that will enable Amazon to meet consumer demand more effi ciently. “Mississippi is a great state for business and gives us the opportunity to better serve our customers in the region,” said Alicia Boler Davis, Amazon’s vice president of global customer fulfi llment. “We are excited for our future in the magnolia state and for what this means for our customers as we continue to grow. We’d also like to thank local and state leaders for their strong support in making this project possible.” ississippi punches well above its weight in its ability to deliver skilled workers to the many advanced manufacturers doing business in the state. Companies in the shipbuilding, aerospace, automotive and other sectors take advantage of not just an advanced transportation infrastructure and central location, but a network of local education and training resources that supply advanced manufacturers with talent. “We are fortunate, as a small state composed of many local ecosystems, to have the layered educational and training pathways that start in the K-12 system and go through our many colleges and universities to address our employers’ needs on a local and regional level,” says Garrett McInnis, executive vice president of The Skills Foundation of Mississippi, a non-profi t working with private industry, local communities and state entities to grow the pipeline of skilled workers. “Mississippi is fortunate to have many examples of local ecosystems that have proven the ability to meet aggressive workforce training needs for manufacturers,” says McInnis. “Whether it be the partnership with Toyota and Itawamba Community College in Blue Springs, Huntington Ingalls and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, or Yokohama Tire and East Mississippi Community College in the Golden Triangle, Mississippi communities large and small have proven their desire and commitment to meeting the needs of industry looking to locate in the Magnolia State.” McInnis says the Skills Foundation works with employers whose requirements include “engineers of all stripes, those trained in Mby MAR K AR E N D Education Ecosystems with an Edge AD V AN C E D MAN U F A C T U R I N G 60 M I S S I S S I P P I DE V E L OP M E NT G U I DEM I S S I S S I P P I DE V E L OP M E N T G U I DE 61 industrial maintenance technology, automation & controls, precision manufacturing, logistics technology and a host of other skills to run and maintain highly advanced automated systems.” How does the Skills Foundation support these companies? “If a young person doesn’t know about a career, they are certainly not going to pursue it,” McInnis points out. “That’s where we come in. We tell people, especially young people, about the fantastic local careers in manufacturing, and we help them fi nd the best skills-training programs to pursue those careers. The Skills Foundation serves as a private non-profi t, educating the public about the best training opportunities that lead to high-quality manufacturing careers through education and outreach initiatives.” EXPANSIONS UNDERSCORE TALENT AVAILABILITY In April, Milwaukee Tool, a leading manufacturer of heavy-duty power tools, hand tools, storage and accessories for the professional construction trades, announced plans to expand its presence in Mississippi. The company will invest $60 million in advanced technology and manufacturing equipment to support the operation of a new, 500,000-sq.-ft. accessories manufacturing facility in Grenada County. As part of the 1,200 overall jobs Milwaukee will bring to the region, 800 of these jobs will be in the new Grenada facility, and the remaining 400 will be across its existing Mississippi locations. The Brookfi eld, Wisconsin-based company has manufacturing, distribution and operations presences in Greenwood, Jackson and Olive Branch, and the company has grown its employee headcount in the state from 526 in 2010 to more than 2,343 in 2020. “Our people and our culture have clearly made the diff erence in our growth and success, noted Milwaukee Tool Group President Steve Richman. “As we seek out new opportunities to attract, retain, and recruit the best talent in the country, the state of Mississippi has continued to be a valued partner. We look forward to bringing more jobs to this state.” In June 2020, Calgon Carbon, a manufacturer of activated carbon products, announced plans to increase production capacity at Port Bienville in Hancock County. The project represents a corporate investment of $185 million and 38 new jobs. The company is adding a new production line at its Bay St. Louis facility and increasing production space from 200,000 square feet to 400,000 square feet. The expansion also will increase Calgon Carbon’s total annual production capacity to more than 200 million pounds of granular activated carbon. “This expansion enables our activated carbon products to be more broadly used to clean the world’s air and water on an even larger scale,” said Steve Schott, Calgon Carbon president and CEO. “There is no better place for this expansion, we have always felt at home in Mississippi, and we appreciate the support and enthusiasm the state and local economic development leadership have shown us, and our parent company, Kuraray.” Manufacturing thrives when communities embrace the companies and encourage their people to pursue opportunities in manufacturing, notes The Skills Foundation’s McInnis. “Mississippi manufacturers have found repeatedly that Mississippi communities don’t take them for granted, and Mississippi workers appreciate the high- paying opportunities those manufacturers provide. This symbiotic relationship between Mississippi manufacturers and the communities where they thrive is good for all involved and ensures future growth potential across the state.” “Mississippi is fortunate to have many examples of local ecosystems that have proven the ability to meet aggressive workforce training needs for manufacturers.” — Garrett McInnis, T S F M Facing Page: A worker at Milwaukee Tools PHOTO COURTESY MISSISSIPPI DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY62 M I S S I S S I P P I DE V E L OP M E NT G U I DE by A DA M BRU N S TIME TO FLEX: MISSISSIPPI PLASTICS KNOWLEDGE AND INNOVATION COVER THE SPECTRUM P L A S T IC S & C OM P O SIT E S lastics and plastics- dependent companies combine to employ 380,000 people in Mississippi. Behind every one of those companies is a story of innovation that’s led to growth in the state. Take Bill Seemann, founder of Seemann Plastics, Seemann Fiberglass and then Seemann Composites, for example. In that simple sequence of name changes you have the history of the plastics industry over the past 50 years. And thanks to a $2.1 million, 35-job expansion in Gulfport announced in September 2020 by Seemann Composites, you have the future, too. “The Seemann Composites team would like to thank Gov. Tate Reeves, the Mississippi Development Authority and the Harrison County Development Commission for assisting in this important expansion of our facility,” said Seemann Composites President Sid Charbonnet. “We are grateful for their support as we continue to grow our workforce and capabilities here in South Mississippi.” The expansion — the company’s sixth — accommodates a new contract to produce composite components for the U.S. Navy, and involves the construction of a 16,000-sq.-ft. addition onto the company’s existing 160,000-sq.-ft. facility. Seemann Composites has developed its own vacuum-infusion technology known as Seemann Composites Resin Infusion Molding Process, or SCRIMP, which today is used in applications around the globe. The process came from decades TIME TO FLEX: MISSISSIPPI PLASTICS KNOWLEDGE AND MISSISSIPPI PLASTICS KNOWLEDGE AND TIME TO FLEX: PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES PM I S S I S S I P P I DE V E L OP M E N T G U I DE 63 of R&D as Bill Seemann and his staff built fi berglass boats and distributed composite materials throughout the Gulf Coast region. After starting out with a small boat repair fi rm named Leda Boat Works in the early 1960s, Seemann’s fl air for invention led to building Olympic Fin Racing Dinghies and to patenting a composite material called C-Flex that dominated racing yacht sailing circuits around the world, says a company history. The company today primarily focuses on production components for Department of Defense and commercial platforms, and has fabricated and delivered thousands of advanced composite structures and products (of all sizes and levels of complexity) to all branches of the U.S. military, many major defense and commercial customers. And it maintains R&D capabilities in order to stay ahead of the game from its perch on 15 acres in Gulfport. Good idea: The American Composites Manufacturers Association, whose Certifi ed Composites Technician (CCT) program is the industry’s gold standard for comprehensive composites manufacturing training, says in its most recent industry update that the composites end- product market is expected to reach $113.2 billion by 2022. “Seemann Composites Inc.’s success is largely accredited to the dedication and talent of its workforce,” says the company. The plastics talent base along the Mississippi Gulf Coast is well known thanks to the legacy of the University of Southern Mississippi and the Mississippi Polymer Institute (MPI) in Hattiesburg. The MPI — created from within USM’s Department of Polymer Science in 1993 — has worked with nearly 600 clients in the state and nearly 260 from outside the state, helping to train 4,162 workers and helping companies create or retain 914 other jobs. A decade ago it outgrew its place of origin and moved to a $28 million complex called The Accelerator that off ered more than 60,000 sq. ft. of resources and talent “to support ventures in composites, polymers, formulation science, biotechnology, sustainable chemistry, alternative energy and other high- tech industries.” The Accelerator’s ecosystem has since expanded too, evolving into the University of Southern Mississippi Innovation and Commercialization Park (The Innovation Park), whose assets even include a low-ropes and dual zipline challenge course at Lake Sehoy designed for teams wanting to enhance morale, leadership and communication. The area is also home to Petal High School, known for a unique plastics and composites education program. It’s that ecosystem that has made a good home for companies such as Hybrid Plastics, which makes a nanostructured chemical called POSS® — or Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane — that bridges the gap between ceramic and organic materials and is used by a variety of industries. “As an entrepreneur, Mississippi is extremely attractive,” said Hybrid Plastics President and CEO Joe Lichtenhan in a recently fi lmed testimonial, “one reason being Offi cials in spring 2019 opened the Marvin B. Dow Stitched Composites Development Center on the campus of Mississippi State University. SOURCE: PLASTICS INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION, 2019 that dominated racing yacht sailing focuses on production components for Department of Defense and fabricated and delivered thousands to stay ahead of the game from its perch on 15 acres in Gulfport.64 M I S S I S S I P P I DE V E L OP M E NT G U I DE there is no state tax on capital gains.” The spinout from an Air Force research lab was set up in California for many years, but, he said, “what we had sought was a manufacturing facility in a state that was manufacturing- friendly.” What they found was a school in Southern Miss that “focused on training its students to be problem solvers” and a state where “workers are really focused on development of a career, and doing their part to make a company successful and growing.” He’s also found all the regulatory agencies accessible. “We have a much larger global footprint than we ever could have achieved in California,” said Lichtenan. “Nanotechnology in Mississippi works.” MATERIALS IN FLIGHT Not all Mississippi plastics talent and assets are confi ned to the Hattiesburg region. Just to the south in Hancock County — home to NASA’s renowned John C. Stennis Space Center — can be found operations from such prominent global plastics and chemicals companies as SABIC, SNF Polychemie and DAK Americas. Journey north to Batesville and you’ll fi nd GE Aviation’s composites facility, inaugurated 13 years ago, where parts are made for such engines as the GEnx for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner jets; the world’s most powerful jet engine, the GE9X; the LEAP engine and the Passport business jet engine. As Mississippi State University’s campus in Starkville, not far from Alabama’s western boundary, a research program partially funded by the FAA and conducted by the Mississippi State University Advanced Composites Institute (ACI) was launched in September 2020 to identify and meet needs within resin infusion technology for aerospace applications. Among the assets at MSU is a robotic stitching machine with an eight-foot reach and capable of 40-ft. X-axis travel to be found at the recently inaugurated Marvin B. Dow Stitched Composites Development Center. The ACI is part of MSU’s Raspet Flight Research Laboratory, the nation’s leading academic research institute dedicated exclusively to the advancement of Unmanned Aircraft Systems. “The Advanced Composites Institute is a great example of how universities can work with federal and industry partners to be at the forefront of emerging technologies, creating economic opportunity in Mississippi and throughout the aerospace sector,” said MSU Interim Vice President for Research and Economic Development Julie Jordan when distinguished polymer scientist and business leader Christopher Bounds was named to lead it in summer 2020. “Dr. Bounds brings extensive experience to ACI and will strengthen the center’s top-fl ight research and development capabilities.” Raspet is the only institution in the world that is designated both “If companies have a problem that involves advanced composites, we can solve it. We’ll come up with a proposal then fabricate and execute it.” —Christopher Bounds, D, A C I, M S U, MSU ALUMNUS there is no state tax on capital gains.” The spinout from an Air Force research lab was set up in California for many campus in Starkville, not far from Alabama’s western boundary, a research program partially funded there is no state tax on capital gains.” M I S S I S S I P P I DE V E L OP M E N T G U I DE 65 as the FAA’s UAS Safety Research Facility and as offi cial UAS Test Sites for both the FAA and the Department of Homeland Security. Home to a fl eet of the largest and most capable unmanned aircraft in academic use, Raspet has secured over $50 million in federal research and testing contracts since 2017 and remains a world leader in composite materials research. PLASTICS PROJECT ROUNDUP • Supported by workforce training assistance from the Mississippi Development Authority and tax exemptions from Lee County, Auto Parts Manufacturing Mississippi recently invested $100 million and created 50 jobs at its plant in Guntown, increasing production to support the Toyota Mississippi plant in Blue Springs. • Gigantic Bag in May 2020 announced it was adding 100 jobs as it began to manufacture hospital gowns at a former power association building east of McComb. • Cooper Tire & Rubber continues to invest in its Tupelo plant, which in 2019 was honored with the Best Industrial/Manufacturing Energy Effi ciency Project award by the Mississippi Energy Coordinators Association. The work of the Tupelo plant served as a pilot for similar upgrades to be made across other Cooper manufacturing facilities. • In March 2021, Leisure Pools one of the world’s largest composite fi berglass swimming pool, spa and tanning ledge manufacturers, fi nalized plans to establish manufacturing and distribution operations at Picayune Industrial Park. The project is a $3.25 million corporate investment and will create 100 jobs. “This year has gotten off to a strong start for economic development in Mississippi,” said Mississippi Development Authority Executive Director John Rounsaville, “and this announcement that Leisure Pools is bringing so many good manufacturing jobs to the Mississippi Gulf Coast Region continues that exciting momentum. The goal of MDA is to build stronger communities through job creation and investment, and we appreciate the teams at Pearl River County Economic Development, the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors and Mississippi Power for working with MDA to help us achieve our goals for the people of Mississippi.” Entergy Ad66 M I S S I S S I P P I DE V E L OP M E N T G U I DE ommodities produced by Mississippi’s 34,700 farms each year contribute $7 billion to the state’s economy. Getting them to market is crucial to ensuring that value is maintained. Enter Express Grain Terminals, which originates grain from producers at three locations in the heart of the Mississippi Delta: Sidon, Minter and Greenwood in central Mississippi. The company ships by truck and rail from its 110-car unit train loader at Sidon to markets in Mississippi and Alabama, and to exporters at the Gulf. The company also processes soybeans at its plant in Greenwood, from which some of the oil is further processed to biodiesel on site or sold to animal feed producers or other biodiesel plants. The soybean meal and hulls find their way into animal feed that goes to area poultry, catfish, swine, and cattle feed mills and producers. John Coleman, the 43-year-old president of Express Grain Terminals, grew up in the region, and after a stint putting his electrical engineering and software design skills to work elsewhere, he came back home. Spurred by the increase in soybean and corn acreage in the area brought on by renewable fuel incentives and a drought in the Midwest, he started planning a grain elevator in 2007, building on a thick network of farmer customers to jump- start a facility that has since expanded over the years. Farmers previously had to move crops 280 miles by rail and truck for export. Now the products are sourced and sold domestically within 100 miles. “We knew this area needed more grain infrastructure,” Coleman says. That need only increased around 2013 after Bunge shut down the region’s last soybean processing facility. As it happened, a former cottonseed processing plant in Greenwood built around 1900 and used by a succession of companies came up for sale. “We ended up buying that, retooling it for soybeans, and started up in 2016,” Coleman says, and his company rehired the 50 folks who had lost their cottonseed plant jobs. “We’ve been doing that ever since, and we are trying to grow the capacity of the plant now,” he says of the state’s only soybean processing plant. In an April 2021 update, Coleman wrote, “Even before the short soybean stocks that have occurred this year, we have been investing in our crush plant to try to satisfy by A DA M BRU N S C Beyond the Black Belt INVESTMENTS BUILD OUT MISSISSIPPI’S AGRICULTURAL INFRASTRUCTURE A G R IB U S IN E S S “Agriculture is in my blood,” says Express Grain Terminals President John Coleman (inset), whose terminals and soybean processing plant in the Mississippi Delta continue to grow alongside the crops they service. PHOTOS COURTESY OF EGTM I S S I S S I P P I DE V E L OP M E N T G U I DE 67 both the Mississippi meal demand from catfi sh and poultry markets and the soybean oil demand due to the continued growth of renewable fuels.” The plan calls for doubling capacity to 2 million bushels per month, and then double again to 4 million bushels per month in fi ve to 10 years. “This would be about where we would saturate the meal market in Mississippi, but this assumes no growth in livestock feed,” he wrote. “We just want more farmers and more livestock to come around.” Meanwhile, growth in biodiesel sales and other renewable fuel plants are increasing demand for soybean oil. “The new demand is being driven by low carbon fuel incentives (LCFS credits) primarily from the West Coast — California, Oregon, and British Columbia,” Coleman wrote in his spring update. “These states are pulling biofuels from the entire U.S. and their appetite is large. There are several other states like Washington that are considering LCFS as well. Currently, we are seeing a build-out of new renewable fuel plants that will be online within a year to satisfy the LCFS demand. I have spoken to representatives from two projects who want our soybean oil. At our current capacity, we would not be able to supply what they want. But, with the planned capacity increases we will be able to take care of them.” The Express Grain team has used New Markets Tax Credit transactions along the way to fi rst buy and retool the cottonseed plant, then to build the biodiesel plant, and, in 2020, to expand capacity. The company also has benefi ted from Mississippi Development Authority support in building and upgrading roads into the plant site and securing property tax abatements through the state’s Advantage Jobs incentive, which provides for a 90% rebate of Mississippi payroll taxes to qualifi ed employers for a period of up to 10 years, provided the employer pays an average annual wage of 110% of the average annual county or state wage, whichever is less, and creates 25 new, full-time jobs. Today the growing Express Grain operations employ around 180 across the three sites. The company also supports the work taking place at hundreds of farms in the region, each of which employs anywhere from three to 10 workers, Coleman estimates. Many of those farmers would likely echo his sentiment: “Agriculture is in my blood,” he says. NEW CROP Among other projects in the agribusiness space: Nufarm Americas, the U.S. arm of the Australia-based crop protection and seed treatment company, in fall 2019 held the grand opening for its new $20 million herbicide manufacturing plant in Greenville, broadening the company’s footprint beyond its Chicago-area operations. “This is a facility where we can work more closely with our distribution partners to service the needs of farmers.”said Nufarm CEO Greg Hunt. Enviva operates wood pellet plants in Amory and Lucedale, Mississippi, and a port facility at the Port of Pascagoula, part of an estimated 4,200 jobs and nearly $3 billion in annual economic impact the company aims to create across the U.S. Southeast. The company supports nearly 550 jobs across Mississippi and has invested $300 million in the state. Those numbers may grow soon, as a new plant is constructed in Lucedale, another is moving toward development in Bond (near the Port of Pascagoula), and a Pascagoula terminal expansion is expected to be complete in 2021 that will take throughput capacity to more than 3 million metric tons per year. Next >