After announcing in a news conference Tuesday it would be moving a factory founded in Ithaca to the state of Florida, Mettler Toledo Hi-Speed, an international supplier of precision scales and instruments, never reached out to local industrial development leaders, The Ithaca Journal has learned.
After announcing a new $30 million, 250,000-square-foot facility in Lutz, Florida outside of Tampa Bay, Mettler Toledo Hi-Speed, an international supplier of precision scales and instruments, announced it will relocate its Dryden plant — and the 185 jobs that go with it — to a consolidated facility in Florida. X Ray Food Inspection Systems
“It’s really new to us,” Tompkins County Area Development Executive Director Michael Stamm said. “We focus on the job creation point of view with existing companies, so we have pretty good relationships with virtually all the companies in town, but I think local management was probably put under an information embargo, so they weren’t allowed to talk to anybody about this … I don’t know the details at all other than what I’ve read.”
TCAD has reached out to local and corporate management in Toledo, Ohio, Stamm said, and has not yet heard back.
In an emailed statement, Mettler Toledo wrote that employees of the plant will be offered job opportunities and relocation to Tampa, adding "Customers of both Hi-Speed and Safeline will benefit significantly as these two leading businesses combine into a single location and organization."
Representatives from the company declined further comment.
Hi-Speed Checkweigher started in Ithaca in 1945, was bought by Mettler Toledo in the 1980s and moved the plant to its 5 Barr Road home in 1990.
Stamm said typical factors behind companies relocating out of the area are the cost of power and energy, workman’s compensation costs and other factors. Bill Cronin, CEO of the Pasco County Economic Development Council, said Tuesday in Florida the relocation was motivated by a set of unspecified incentives of the “job creation variety,” which were significant enough to beat out state incentives offered by a competing location outside Atlanta.
Stamm said while the company received local incentives when it first moved into its Barr Road facility, it receives none now.
“One of the challenges is there are very few, if any, state incentives to keep businesses in New York state,” Stamm said. “For example, if Hi-Speed Checkweigher was located in Florida, Florida wouldn’t offer anything to keep them here, and if they were interested in locating to New York state, we would offer them significant incentives to come here. The challenge we always face is what we can do to help existing companies who have been here a long, long time, and Hi-Speed is one of those.”
There is a silver lining for those who do not relocate with the company, Stamm said. Since the news broke, local tech-based manufacturing companies have approached TCAD asking if there would be a job fair for displaced employees. Stamm said many lack qualified applicants to fill their positions.
“We’ve had quite a few companies who are struggling to find skilled tech workers who are both making things and engineering things,” Stamm said. “We’ve begun to believe there are a lot of companies in growth mode who are in advanced manufacturing and tech manufacturing who will be very interested in Hi-Speed Checkweigher employees.”
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