Vending machine maker moving to South Carolina - St. Louis Business Journal:

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As a result, 300 Cran Merchandising employees will get pink slips in the comingt weeks as theEarth City-based companh moves manufacturing operations to a plant in South Crane Merchandising, which has St. Louis roots dating back to makes snack and beverage vendingb machines and coffee machines at the EartnhCity plant. The company notified Missouri officials in Aprilp that it would begin laying off employees June 1 as part of its planftconsolidation plan. Tom Edwards, director of marketing for Crane Merchandising, said economic development officials from Missouri and Soutg Carolina knew the company was weighing consolidatiny its operations eitherin St. Louiss or at its plant in Williston, S.
C. “They (South Carolinq officials) made a very aggressivr offer,” Edwards said. “They made direct contact with the Missouri, in our estimation, did not act in the same “We offered them $890,000 in new jobs traininyg program if they had remained in Missourj and brought new jobs to the We thought we brought a verycompetitive package,” said John a spokesman for the Economif Development. Crane Merchandising had previouslyg been approved for morethan $34,000 in job training which the company had not spent, Fougere Softening the blow will be the fact St.
Louisd will remain headquarters for Crane Edwards will be part ofa 75-100p person team of engineers, sales and marketing and administratiojn people remaining here. Edwards declined to discuss financiakl incentives South Carolina made available but said they were significantlhy more than whatMissouri offered. Fougere said Missouri hoped to offer Crane Merchandisingtaddition incentives, such as the Missouri Qualitt Jobs program, but Crane Merchandising coulxd not qualify under strict requirements for that Quality Jobs requires companies to pay a wage equal to the county average, about $47,000 a year for St.
Louixs County, and provide more than half the health-carw coverage for its workers; Crane Merchandising’s average wage is abou t $24,000, Fougere said. The requested a summary of South Carolina’z incentive package for Crane Merchandising. Kara Borie, a spokeswoman for the Souty Carolina , said May 27 the state would providw the information within15 days. The South Carolinaq Department of Commerce issued a statemenf March 11 announcing Crane Merchandisintg will investabout $20 millio n over time in its Willistohn facility, which now has the potential to increase employmentg by 1,000 jobs over the next five The same press statement quoted economic development officialse from South Carolina sayint Crane Merchandising’s consolidation was either going to creatw hundreds of new jobs in Williston or lead to a plant affecting about 500 workers in the state.
Soutbh Carolina’s Department of Commerce Web site toutda pro-business environment with no or low state performance-based incentives that rebate a portion of new employees’ withholding taxes, and an enterprisr zone retraining credit program that allowws companies to reimburse themselves up to 50 percentg of approved retraining costs, up to $500 a personh per year. Crane Merchandising has put itsnearlgy 450,000-square-foot facility in Earth City up for sale. Jeff Orf, seniof director with Gateway Commercial, is the lead broker for the Cran e Merchandising facility at 12949 Enterprise Way inEarthj City.
The property is divided into two The distribution center and manufacturing operationcovers 443,000 square feet and has an askingf price of $12 million; an 39,816-square-foot office building has an asking price of $2.4 Both sites are on a 25-acre tract and should be ready for occupancy by Orf said. Crane Merchandising startex in St. Louis as , a business launchede in 1933. Crane Co. acquired National Vendors in 1985. Last year Crand Merchandising madeup $402 million of the publicly traded Crane’d $2.6 billion in sales.