The city, county and The Borderplex Alliance unveiled plans by Schneider Electric, a global manufacturer, to build a new plant in El Paso that will employ 400 workers.
“We will train these employees with the skillsets that they need, and I can’t say enough about the skillsets of the workforce that is here,” Kenneth Engel, a senior vice president with Schneider Electric North America, said during the press conference Tuesday. “It means a lot to us and was a big part of the decision in coming with a fourth factory here.”
The 160,000-square-foot facility is part of Schneider Electric’s $100 million regional investment to increase production and speed the delivery of its products to customers in Canada, Mexico and the United States, according to a news release.
“It’s important for Schneider Electric to continue to invest domestically,” Engel said. “With the onset of challenges from the pandemic and all of the supply chain issues globally, we need to be more local.”
The factory will be in the Northwest Corporate Center, and the company says it expects to finish it by the end of this year.
Schneider Electric, a multinational energy management and automation company based in France, will produce customized low-voltage switchboards in the factory, according to a news release.
“These additional jobs in this fourth factory will make us the largest U.S. campus that Schneider Electric has, and we are awful proud of that,” Engel said. “We are also proud that this additional factory will bring an economic value of $138 million into this community.”
Before the press conference Tuesday morning, the El Paso City Council approved a package of tax incentives, which City Manager Tommy Gonzalez said was worth nearly $1.5 million. El Paso County provided Schneider Electric with $300,000 in tax breaks.
“Why are they here today? Why are they going to invest another $15 million in our community? Why are they going to create another 370 jobs and put it over 1,500 team members total? … They grew because our community embraced the supply pipeline – the ease of moving their product. And, again, people make the difference,” El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said.
A Fortune 500 company, Schneider Electric is traded on the Paris Stock Exchange. Its net income in 2020 was more than $2 billion (2.1 billion euros).
