A fast-growing vitamin manufacturer wants to open its 12th facility in Suffolk County and create 110 jobs over the next two years, officials said Thursday.
PipingRock Health Products LLC, which is based in Bohemia and has facilities in several other states, hopes to use a former data center at 90 Davids Dr. in Hauppauge for the production and distribution of vitamins and nutritional supplements. Executives said the additional factory is needed to meet increased demand.
The $15 million project won preliminary approval on Thursday for $1 million in tax breaks from the county’s industrial development agency. Much of the savings would come from a sales-tax exemption of up to $396,750 on the purchase of construction materials and equipment, plus a $580,890 reduction in property taxes over 15 years, or 29%.
“Increased sales have caused a need for increased manufacturing and distribution capacity,” said John Aguanno, the company’s chief financial officer. “PipingRock believes that Suffolk County would be the ideal location to continue its expansion,” subject to final approval of the tax aid.
PipingRock was founded nine years ago by Scott Rudolph, who together with his father, Arthur, started the Nature’s Bounty Co. in 1986. The younger Rudolph ran Nature’s Bounty until it was sold to the Carlyle Group investment firm for $3.8 billion.
In its short history, PipingRock has grown to 793 employees on Long Island and in California, Ohio, Nevada and North Carolina, according to the company’s real estate attorney Peter L. Curry.
In Suffolk, PipingRock has 564 employees who earn, on average, $50,561 per year; the new jobs would pay $36,880 annually, on average.
The company’s top attorney, Irene Fisher, told IDA board members on Thursday, “We’re about creating good jobs and a best-in-class manufacturing facility. We want to increase our presence on Long Island.”
Still, in its application for tax breaks, PipingRock said it would expand elsewhere without IDA assistance, but has no plans to close its local facilities. “While [the company] would not necessarily move its current operations out of New York, it has already and would continue to consider other states as the location of new operations,” the company stated.
Several other PipingRock facilities have won tax breaks from the Babylon and Islip town IDAs as well as support from New York State.
The company is a leader in the Island’s vitamin and pharmaceutical industry, which employs more than 10,000 people, according to a study by the Suffolk IDA and Workforce Development Institute in Albany.
“The pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industry, like the defense industry many years ago, serves a good base for the region’s economy to grow,” said IDA executive director Anthony J. Catapano.
IDA vice chairman Kevin Harvey agreed, adding the 110 jobs to be created by PipingRock would pay a total of $4 million in wages each year of the 15-year tax deal. In comparison, the company’s annual property-tax savings would average $38,726 during the period.
James T. Madore writes about Long Island business news including the economy, development, and the relationship between government and business. He previously served as Albany bureau chief.
