Baxter International Inc.
Baxter International Inc. of Deerfield, Illinois, a publicly traded health care products manufacturer, announced Thursday that it will add about 225 full-time employees to its Mountain Home plant over the next five years.
“Baxter’s expansion in Mountain Home will help increase production of components for disposable medical devices spanning our portfolio of life-saving and life-sustaining products,” Tony Johnson, vice president of operations for Baxter in the U.S. and Canada, said in a news release.
Johnson said collaboration with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission “was critical” to the expansion.
According to the AEDC, Baxter qualified for the following incentives:
- The Create Rebate, which provides a cash rebate based on payroll of new jobs. The rebate will equal 3.9 percent of payroll associated with the new jobs. The agreement is for seven years.
- A $2.3 million Community Development Block Grant for training equipment and electrical upgrades.
- Tax Back, which provides sales tax refunds on building materials, taxable machinery and equipment associated with the expansion.
- $210,000 in Workforce Training Funds.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson joined company and local leaders for the announcement, which took place at Arkansas State University’s Mountain Home campus.
“There is tremendous opportunity for growth in the health care industry,” Hutchinson said. “It’s great to know that Mountain Home is proven to have a business climate and workforce to meet the needs of Baxter. The medical products manufactured here in Arkansas go a long way toward improving the lives of people throughout the U.S. and the world.”
Open since 1964, the 550,000-SF Baxter’s Mountain Home plant is one of the company’s largest plastics and medical device manufacturing plants and employs about 1,000 people.
“Baxter has been an asset to our community since opening its Mountain Home lab in 1964, 50-plus years ago,” Mountain Home Mayor Joe Dillard said. “It has provided thousands of jobs for the Mountain Home area and is a tremendous asset to our community.”
The jobs announcement is one of two the governor is scheduled to make on Thursday. Another is set for 2 p.m. in Melbourne.
Sign up for Daily E-news
