Manufacturing
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
Any time the military decides to close an installation, two things are sure: It will take a long time before the lights go out, and even longer for the site to find a new use.
In Philadelphia, the former Navy Yard is being transformed into a business hub. In February, city officials celebrated that 10,000 jobs and 130 companies are now located there. It took more than a decade to get to that point after the Navy signed over 1,000 acres in 2001.
Kansas encountered its own military conflict when a massive ammunition plant in Parsons was placed on the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) list. As with the Philadelphia Navy Yard, employment at the Kansas Army Ammunition Plant peaked during World War II, topping out at 7,358.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t pay much attention to a 13,700-acre base hundreds of miles from Philadelphia. But I do when a privately held Philadelphia company with $2.7 billion in annual revenue has been operating a munitions plant there for more than 40 years.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Moorestown operations have apparently retained the contract for the U.S. Navy's Aegis weapons system, Bloomberg News is reporting.
The defense contractor's Mission Systems and Training unit received a contract worth up to $100 million of which more than half of the work would be done in Moorestown. Bloomberg said Lockheed Martin beat out a team of Boeing Co. and Raytheon Co. who bid to become the engineer for the system which detects and intercepts threats to surface vessels.
Lockheed has been the contractor behind Aegis for more than 40 years.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
Campbell Soup Co. may be based in Camden, but Napoleon, Ohio, is the site of the company’s biggest food-manufacturing plant.
Located near Toledo, the factory employs about 1,500 people who produce soups, sauces and beverages for the consumer-products giant.
It’s also one of the focal points for Campbell Soup’s efforts to make its operations more sustainable. In December, the company switched on a 9.8-megawatt solar-panel farm that is expected to supply up to 15 percent of Napoleon’s electricity needs.
Of course, the sun doesn’t shine every day, but name a manufacturer that goes a day without producing waste. That’s why Campbell Soup has committed to directing organic waste from its food-processing operations in Napoleon to a commercial biogas power plant now under construction nearby.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
Mount Laurel-based PMC Group agreed to acquire the tin stabilizer business of Arkema, a French chemical company.
In a statement, Arkema said that the business, which makes products used in the manufacture of PVC and by automobile companies, generates about $220 million in sales. The business employs 234 people at four locations, including Carrollton, Ky., and Mobile, Ala.
Terms of the sale, which is expected to occur this fall, were not disclosed.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
The maker of K'nex toys has long manufactured many of its products in America, and it pushed that as a key marketing message in 2007 after safety concerns arose about toys made in China.
But the family-owned company in Montgomery County decided it needed to do more as the U.S. economy slumped, and it chose to move one of its key operations from China to the United States.
Read the full story here.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
The Corbett administration has awarded $844,000 in incentives to help a Canadian company that makes catalytic converters for diesel vehicles relocate to Montgomeryville.
Environmental Solutions Worldwide Inc. will move its headquarters from Concord, Ontario, to a 40,220-square-foot building that its U.S. research and development and Air Testing Services units have been using since 2005. Last October, the company relocated all of its manufacturing operations from Canada to the Montgomeryville facility.
The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development provided a $150,000 Opportunity Grant, a $500,000 low-interest loan from the Machinery and Equipment Loan Fund, and $194,000 in job-creation tax credits. In addition, the state said the company would be eligible to apply for R&D tax credits.
In return, Environmental Solutions Worldwide said it intended to create at least 97 jobs within three years and retain 11 existing jobs. According to its most recent annual report, the company had 38 employees, down from 53 the prior year.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
As the end of the first quarter and onslaught of earnings news approaches, you can usually see the slowdown in press release manufacturing at companies.
However, not all companies are preparing to unveil the financial results of the first quarter. Take Harleysville-based Met-Pro Corp. which released results for its fourth quarter and full year ended Jan. 31. (Here is a link to a PDF file of those results.)
Annual sales of the maker of pollution control and other environmental equipment topped $100 million compared with $88.9 million for the previous year. Net income was $7.1 million, or 48 cents per share, vs. $6.1 million, or 42 cents per share, for the year ended Jan. 31, 2011.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
Manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region expanded in January and more companies reported improving conditions in the labor market.
The widely watched Business Outlook Survey of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said the percentage of firms noting an increase in employment was higher than that for firms reporting a decrease -- 21 percent vs. 10 percent.
Still, "moderate" is the word the Philly Fed used for the pace of the expansion of the region's manufacturing sector.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
Sunoco Inc. will complete its spinoff of its metallurgical coke manufacturing business by issuing a special stock dividend to shareholders.
The company said Thursday that its board of directors approved a stock dividend of the 56.66 million shares of SunCoke Energy Inc. that it still owns after SunCoke's initial public offering in July. Sunoco had retained an 80.94 percent controlling stake in the producer of coke, which is used in the steel industry.
Sunoco shareholders would receive 0.53 of a share of SunCoke common stock for each share of Sunoco common stock held as of Jan. 5. The distribution of the SunCoke shares would occur on Jan. 17.
Mike Armstrong, Inquirer Columnist
Berwyn-based TE Connectivity has offered to buy Deutsch Group SAS for 1.55 billion euros, or about $2.06 billion.
Most of the wire stories call TE Connectivity a Swiss company, which is correct to a point. But TE Connectivity CEO Tom Lynch and his top management team run the Switzerland-domiciled company from Chester County.
Even TE's recently filed annual report lists its principal offices in Berwyn "in a facility that we rent."
But I digress.
Mike Armstrong blogs about Philadelphia corporations and business-related topics. Contact him at 215-854-2980.
Reach Mike at marmstrong@phillynews.com.
