Spartan Motors, Inc. will expand and create nearly 200 new jobs at its Ephrata, Lancaster County, PA truck body manufacturing facility.
“On the heels of our USPS truck body win, we needed to make a determination on where to manufacture those vehicles,” said Daryl Adams, President and Chief Executive Officer, Spartan Motors. “Rather than build or buy a new facility elsewhere, we made the decision to re-invest in and revitalize our Ephrata location, placing the Utilimaster truck body plant here.”
Spartan has accepted a grant and tax credit award package which initially totals $678,000 from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for its Ephrata plant expansion and long-term job growth initiatives. The award comes following its $214 million United States Postal Service (USPS) contract win to build more than 2,000 cargo body vehicles for parcel delivery. The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) offered the Pennsylvania First Program (PFP) grant, in the amount of $300,000, to be used toward the project. Alongside the PFP grant, it has provided Job Creation Tax Credits (JCTC) of $378,000, based on the premium wages Spartan workers will earn. Additionally, Manufacturing Tax Credits (MTC) have been offered for the creation of these jobs.
Utilimaster, a go-to-market brand of Spartan Motors’ Fleet Vehicles & Services business unit, has been engineering, manufacturing, and assembling purpose-built parcel and last mile delivery vehicles for more than 40 years. Last October, Spartan announced the USPS award as the single largest revenue contract in its history. The USPS cargo body order consists of a combination of 18-foot and 24-foot Cab Over Engine and Cab Behind Engine Utilimaster truck body configurations. The initial order of 2,000 truck bodies will be built and delivered over the span of two years, beginning this month, with an option for additional quantities to be delivered over a third contract year. The win and resulting plant expansion is expected to create nearly 200 new full-time jobs over three years.
“Spartan’s decision to expand right here in Pennsylvania demonstrates the strength of our manufacturing sector, which has been a top priority of this administration since day one,” said Governor Tom Wolf. “I applaud Spartan for expanding its Ephrata facility, which will provide a significant boost to the Lancaster-area economy and provide hundreds of manufacturing jobs for workers in the years to come. This is a big win for the region.”
“We’re committed to this location, our workforce, and to better serving our customers by having a larger presence on the Eastern seaboard,” Adams continued. “Programs like the PFP and the corresponding tax credits offered by Governor Wolf and the DCED made that expansion easier.”
Spartan’s Ephrata truck body manufacturing facility has been designed with the future in mind. Flexible manufacturing layouts allow for changes in customer orders and future build accommodations, so that changes to line configurations and corresponding product builds and assembly are thought of at the outset.
Spartan Motors employs approximately 2,300 associates, and operates facilities in Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Wisconsin, Nebraska, South Dakota; Saltillo, Mexico; and Lima, Peru.
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