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Valley: Rapid Job Growth
Texas' Rio Grande Valley offers some prime attractions to manufacturing, distribution and service companies, including a large labor pool and convenient access to Mexican manufacturing and assembly plants. As a result, call centers, distribution firms and supply companies have flocked to cities like Laredo, Brownsville and Harlingen in recent years.
Job growth has been fastest in the McAllen-Mission region (population 100,000) across from the Mexican city of Reynosa. Progressive Molded Products Ltd. picked McAllen in July for a new 104,000-sq.-ft. (9,662-sq.-m.) plastic injection molding facility to produce automotive interior trim components. "This means good jobs with higher wages and excellent benefits for our work force," says Mike McAllen, president and CEO, McAllen Economic Development Corp.
The Ontario, Canada, manufacturer plans to hire 200 employees by 2002. "We wanted to expand our operations to meet the stringent timeframe demands of our clients in the southern United States and northern Mexico," says Bill Sutherland, general manager. "In order to be competitive in the global economy, suppliers must be near the companies they supply in order to meet these demands."
Another new major employer is Convergys Corp., which was attracted by the area's large bilingual labor pool in opening a 1,200-person call center in February. Western Wireless is also opening a 115-person call center.
Harlingen (population 48,000) is centrally located in the Rio Grande Valley with an efficient network of highways, railroads, and air and sea routes. Harlingen has several industrial parks, including the AirPark, Port of Harlingen and Harlingen Industrial Parks I through IV. Gibbs-Texas Die Casting Corp. is investing $23 million in a new aluminum and magnesium die casting facility in Harlingen and creating 204 new jobs. Also, Sam Houston Race Park Ltd. of Houston will invest $900,000 in the renovation of Valley Greyhound Park in Harlingen with 45 new jobs.
New investment is also flowing into Laredo (population 165,000) at the southern end of I-35. Known as the "gateway to Mexico," Laredo is a center for foreign trade and maquiladora assembly operations. The Laredo Development Foundation expects the Port of Laredo will handle more than 2 million loaded trucks in 2000, double the amount of the mid-1990s. Laredo International Airport is the largest air cargo facility on the Texas-Mexico border, and many carriers are based at Air Cargo Industrial Park.
Brownsville (population 130,000) is the southernmost port on the Gulf Coast and another major entry point for cross-border trade with Mexico. Matamoros, on the other side of the Rio Grande, has more than 110 maquiladora plants, supporting Brownsville's industrial community.
In June, Neoplan USA, North America's largest bus manufacturer, signed an agreement to begin making buses at the Brownsville airport. The Colorado-based company plans to hire 600 people within two years, including former employees of the Eagle Coach Corp., which went out of business in 1998. The company's decision capped a nine-month recruiting effort, helped by the city's bus-making expertise. "They knew the Eagle product, the quality of the Eagle workers and so when they heard the facility was available they were interested," says Jim Tipton, chairman of the Brownsville Economic Development Council.
Convergys Corp., a global leader in providing outsourced customer support services to large companies, in 1999 announced plans to open a customer service center in Brownsville. The facility will create 800 jobs within two years. Convergys employees will handle incoming customer inquiries for clients primarily in the utility industry.
©2000 Conway Data, Inc. All rights reserved. SiteNet data is from many sources and is not warranted to be accurate or current.
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