The editors of Site Selection are preparing the annual Business Climate
rankings, and we need your help. A key part of the rankings that appear
in our November issue is input from you on which states have the
business climates you find most attractive. Please take a minute to
respond to the simple survey that follows. The deadline is Friday,
September 2nd. Click on the following survey link to take this survey:
https://forms.office.com/r/0aATZimz43
PROJECT WATCH
India
Indian beverage startup Groovy Juices’ third plant in India has opened
in Hyderabad, joining two other operations in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand (at
its parent company’s water bottling plant) and in Jammu and Kashmir. The
company’s pouch-packaged juices come in such flavors as guava,
Mint-O-Lemon, lychee, anar and mango. Groovy Juices is a brand of Enhaz
Beverages, founded by brothers Mitkaran Singh and Rajneesh Sharma in
2019 to sell affordable fruit juices to Tier II and Tier III cities and
to rural areas across northern India. This compelling story from online news source
YourStory documents how company leaders launched the first Groovy Juices
plant just as the pandemic struck, when they called on companies in the
region’s industrial cluster as they were unable to fly in Chinese
engineers to install equipment that had instructions only in Mandarin.
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly announced last week that JTM Foods, LLC has
broken ground for a new manufacturing facility in the ICT21 Industrial
District on formerly blighted land in Wichita, where it will make its
signature JJ’s Snack Pies. It’s the first plant outside the company’s
home state of Pennsylvania, and will improve logistics for distributing
the hand-held snack pies to markets in the South, Southwest and West
Coast regions, in part because of its location on I-135. “After
exploring several options across multiple states and locales,” said
Monty Pooley, JTM Foods president and CEO, “the strong public/private
partnerships here, linking government, business, academic, and community
interests together, convinced us that Wichita was the best choice for
JTM’s future expansion.” “The City of Wichita’s speculative warehouse
abatement policy has been especially critical for our ability to recruit
new companies,” said Jeff Fluhr, president of Greater Wichita
Partnership.
Brought to you by Conway Custom Content, the new economic development guide for 2022-23
features a letter to investors from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker;
interviews with Intersect Illinois CEO Dan Seals and Illinois Department
of Community and Economic Opportunity Sylvia Garcia; insights into
workforce and infrastructure development; industry reports on hot
sectors such as data centers, clean energy, life sciences, film
production and logistics; conversations with company leaders; and
profiles of projects and communities across the Land of Lincoln.
SITE SELECTION
RECOMMENDS
From its Virginia Beach headquarters, DroneUp connects to a national
network of thousands of certified drone pilots.
Photo courtesy of DroneUp
Last week executives with DroneUp, LLC, a drone flight
services innovator and aviation technology provider,
announced the company will invest $27.2 million to expand
its headquarters in the City of Virginia Beach and establish
a testing, training and R&D center at Richard Bland College
in Dinwiddie County. “Virginia successfully competed with
Arizona, New York, North Carolina, and Texas for the
projects,” said a release from Gov. Glenn Youngkin, “which
will create 655 total new jobs.” Site Selection interviewed DroneUp executives two years
ago for a piece focused on the opportunities for
unmanned vehicle innovation in the Hampton Roads region.
DroneUp leaders at the time were looking forward to doubling
their headcount to 30 people as the firm we described as
“the Uber of drone services” ramped up business. “Virginia,”
DroneUP COO (and now Executive VP) Anthony Vittone told us
then, “has taken the lead for developing the ecosystem for
unmanned systems.”
Since then, the company, whose new slogan is “Let’s Fly,”
received a major investment from Walmart, and last month
opened its third delivery hub in Rogers in Walmart’s home
state of Arkansas, following the opening of two previous
hubs in Farmington and Bentonville. European expansion is
next. But the company’s roots are in founder Tom Walker’s
home state. “Virginia is our home, and we are proud to be
able to continue to bring new innovation, talent, and
economic opportunities to our great state,” Walker said last
week. “This investment and expansion will not only bring new
career opportunities to our region, but also allow us to tap
into the brightest minds around unmanned aircraft system
development and design.”
Fluor announced last week that first production of copper concentrate
has been achieved at Anglo American’s Quellaveco project (pictured) in
Peru. “As execution partners for this mega-project — a state-of-the-art,
world-class facility — we are proud to serve as members of the team that
helped produce copper in fewer than four years after the project was
approved,” said Tony Morgan, president of Fluor’s Mining & Metals
business, of the open pit mine being pursued by Anglo American and
partner Mitsubishi Corp.
The mine will increase Peru’s copper production by approximately 10% and
will provide 2,500 direct jobs, Fluor explained. Quellaveco is one of
the five largest copper deposits in the world, located more than 3,000
meters (9,842 ft.) above sea level in the Moquegua region of southern
Peru. Moquegua means “quiet place” in the region’s native Quechua
language.
