BENTON -- CoorsTek officials plan to expand the company's Benton location and add 30-35 new positions largely because of Saline County's available labor pool and prospects for the labor pool going forward.
The county is creating the Saline County Career and Technology Center, a vocational school project funded by a three-eighths percent sales tax that voters approved in November.
The center, which will include about 120,000 square feet and accommodate about 500 students when it opens in 2021, will be devoted to high school students from the county's six school districts.
CoorsTek is a Golden, Colo.-based manufacturer of technical ceramics for the semiconductor, medical, automotive, and oil and gas industries. It has facilities in Asia, Europe and 11 states, including Arkansas, where it currently employs about 200 people in Benton.
The company intends to work with the Saline County vocational center to give the high school students access to equipment and help train them to work in advanced systems, said Steve Brazil, CoorsTek's vice president of operations of the eastern division.
"Our ability to train a workforce is going to be huge for our area," said Lamont Cornwell, the executive director of the Saline County Economic Development Corp.
Making CoorsTek ceramics requires precise manufacturing and worker skill, the company says. Its ceramics are used in circumstances when metals cannot hold up to the routine wear and tear on a product.
Brazil said being able to recruit workers who have been trained on the equipment in high school will be a great benefit.
"You know, the No. 1 asset in these factories is the people," Brazil said.
He said the pay for the new positions is competitive, but he declined to give specific numbers.
Saline County has grown in the past 20 years, and its population has jumped from 107,118 in 2010 to 119,323 in 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Cornwell said attracting more factories to the area will contribute to that prosperity. The county's unemployment rate stays between 3.2 percent and 3.5 percent, consistently lower than the state's overall.
Benton Mayor Tom Farmer said he envisions opportunities continuing to grow in the city.
"I see with the announcement of CoorsTek, other industry is going to want to come here," Farmer said.
Brazil said it's become easier to recruit people to live in Saline County.
Access Control Devices Inc. put a facility in Benton almost two years ago, Cornwell said. Before choosing Benton, that company considered Orange County, Calif., and New York City as possible locations.
"To your point, you know, historically Arkansas was not that really appealing for the general population moving from heavily industrial states. You know, let's just use Pennsylvania, all these different areas, because there's so much to do at those locations," Brazil said. "But today it's a lot easier for us to recruit people here in Arkansas."
Cornwell says that's because of a high quality of life in Saline County.
"I've always said use this like you would a cruise ship," Cornwell said. "Come to Benton and stay, and you can travel around. You can go to Murfreesboro and dig for diamonds. You can go to Little Rock and see all the fixings up there. You can go to Hot Springs, and we've got lakes and hiking trails."
CoorsTek first located in Benton in 1979 and expanded in 2011, Brazil said.
It's hoped that CoorsTek will continue to expand in Benton, Cornwell said. The current expansion has been in the works for a year, Brazil said.
A little more than 200 people work for the company today, said Brandi Hinkle, director of communications for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. The state and the city are working with CoorsTek to obtain tax exemptions for the company as reward for increasing jobs in Saline County.
Cornwell said Saline County, where 65 percent of residents work outside of the county, is a ready workforce for CoorsTek. Farmer said the factory's growth will provide jobs beyond the 30-35 jobs with the company. It will also provide employment for construction crews who will work on expanding the building.
Metro on 03/24/2019