hilips Lighting will expand their operations at the company's Tupelo, Miss., facility, creating a manufacturing hub. The $2-million investment allows the company to retain the facility's existing employees and creates 50 new jobs. The expansion will incorporate LED technology made at Philips' San Jose, Calif., facility into the Tupelo plant's production line up which includes intelligent fixtures which automatically respond to their environment. "Our expansion at this facility reinforces our commitment to this community, which helps us to turn innovations into world-class products that are good for the local economy and the environment," said Iain Logan, head of operations for Philips Lighting Americas. "It is a great example of a public-private partnership that works."

ithout much ado, Pinkerton, the security firm founded in 1850, announced Aug. 7th it would move its corporate headquarters from New Jersey to Ann Arbor, Mich. They didn’t waste much time — the new headquarters was operational by the end of August. Pinkerton President Jack Zahran, who grew up near Detroit, said the location was chosen because of the region’s talent level. The company is occupying 11,000 sq. ft. (1,022 sq. m.) and plans to expand in phases.

upontPioneer is building a multimillion-dollar research facility in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. The new R&D facility will focus on developing ultra-early maturity corn products for growers in Alberta and Western Canada. "We are proud to build another Pioneer facility in Lethbridge," said Steve King, corn researcher for DuPont Pioneer. "Not only is the climate well-suited for product development, but we know first-hand the strength of the community. Our canola production plant has been located here for seven years." Research plots were planted in the spring at the site and construction has begun on the 22,500-sq.-ft. (2,100-sq.-m.) research facility. The building is expected to open in November 2014 and will create additional jobs in the region.

KF Group, a maker of precision bearings based in Sweden, is building its North American research and development facility in Naperville, Ill., part of a $2.5-billion investment made in the region in the past five years. “Naperville provides a central location to some of our most significant U.S. customers, proximity to many local world class research universities and a highly educated workforce that is critical to our knowledge engineering efforts,” said SKF president and CEO Tom Johnstone. The new 130,000-sq.-ft. (12,000-sq.-m.) facility will create 400 full-time jobs in the first two years and an additional 40 within four years.

enault-Nissan is partnering with Daimler AG to build a $1.36-billion manufacturing facility in the northern Mexican state of Aguacalientes that will create 5,700 jobs. Construction is slated to begin in 2015. The new facility will produce next-generation compact cars for Infiniti and Mercedes Benz. Infiniti production would begin in 2017, Mercedes in 2018. The plant will produce 300,000 vehicles annually. “The joint development of high-end compact vehicles and their joint output in Aguascalientes is one of the largest projects undertaken jointly by the Renault-Nissan and Daimler,” said Carlos Ghosn, president and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance. “Our collaboration, which began in Europe, has now reached a global scale.”