Haier Group, a Chinese appliance and consumer electronics manufacturer, has chosen Evansville as the location of its first U.S. product tech center.
The center, which is expected to be up and running early next year, will create 50 new high-paying jobs, officials say.
“This is really phenomenal news,” said Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke during a news conference Monday morning.
Winnecke said Haier is not yet ready to announce where its Evansville operation will be. The likely site, the mayor said, will be a building “near Downtown.”
Haier’s decision is especially significant, Winnecke said, given Evansville’s history as a manufacturer of refrigerators and large appliances.
“I feel this is really a moral victory for our community.”
For years, Whirlpool was a major Evansville manufacturer, and at its peak the company employed 10,000 people. The company shut down its Evansville refrigerator production plant in 2010. Its refrigeration product design center remained here for a time but has since moved to Whirlpool’s headquarters in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
Haier, which was formed in 1984, started out as a single refrigerator factory in Qingdao, China. The company has since grown to become an international company with more than 70,000 employees. Its global revenues last year totaled $29.5 billion.
Haier makes a range of home appliance and consumer electronics products including refrigerators, dishwashers, microwave ovens, televisions, washers, dryers and air conditioners.
The company’s North American division is known as Haier America. It opened its first U.S. facility, a refrigerator manufacturing plant in Camden, South Carolina, in 1999.
Haier America’s general manager of research and development, Wayne Steele, said the Evansville tech center will allow Haier to design its products specifically for U.S. consumers, rather than importing products made elsewhere.
“The intent is to get closer to the customer,” Steele said.
Some product design already takes place at Haier’s South Carolina facility, Steele said, but the Evansville center will be operating on a larger scale. Some Haier engineers currently working in South Carolina will be relocating to the new Evansville facility, he said.
“We see this as a fully functioning, mature tech center.”
As Haier was selecting a location for this project, Steele said, two major factors tipped the scales in Evansville’s favor.
The local talent pool — specifically, the availability of engineers and other tech types, along with young workers — was one factor. Local and state officials’ enthusiasm for the project also helped.
“Everybody was very, very helpful, very energetic, and jumped through hoops to make this happen,” Steele said.
Haier is in line to receive both state and local economic incentives for this project.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. has offered Haier up to $1.4 million in conditional tax credits and up to $450,000 in training grants. These incentives are performance-based, meaning that the company cannot claim them until they have created jobs and hired Hoosiers to fill them.
Haier is also being offered an additional $1.35 million in local incentives, said Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville President Debbie Dewey.
The biggest part of the local incentives will take the form of Tax Increment Financing based on Haier’s investment in equipment and facility improvements.
Depending on where Haier locates, Dewey said, it also has the possibility of qualifying for facade grants for its facility. It may also be eligible for incentives based on the number of low- to moderate-income workers that it hires.