Power-tool maker expanding facility
A high-end, power tool manufacturing company is planning to expand its Lebanon facility for the second time in three years.
Festool USA, which relocated to central Indiana from California in 2006, plans to spend $9.3 million to add 80,000 square feet to its facility in the Lebanon Business Park.
The expansion will create up to 65 new jobs in the Boone County community. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered Festool up to $560,000 in conditional tax credits based on the company’s job creation plans, IEDC communication director Abby Gras told IBJ.
Lebanon City Council approved a six-year property tax abatement for the project, estimated to save the company close to $400,000 over that time period.
Starbucks at all sites ditching plastic straws
Starbucks will eliminate plastic straws from all of its locations within two years, citing the environmental threat to oceans.
The coffee chain becomes the largest food and beverage company to do so as calls to cut waste globally grow louder. While plastic straws account for a small percentage of the waste that ends up in oceans, they’ve become a flashpoint.
A week after its hometown of Seattle banned plastic drinking straws and utensils, Starbucks said Monday that by 2020, it will be using straws made from biodegradable materials like paper and specially designed lids. The company already offers alternative straws in Seattle.
Other cities, like Fort Myers Beach in Florida, have banned plastic straws. Similar proposals are being considered in places like New York and San Francisco. The push to ban plastic straws gained traction after a viral video in 2015 showed rescuers removing a plastic straw from a sea turtle’s nose in graphic detail.
Grain-hopper maker eyes Whitestown location
A Nebraska-based grain hopper manufacturer plans to open a retail and repair facility in Whitestown.
Timpte Industries Inc. has requested a real property tax abatement from the town of Whitestown as an incentive for building the 12,100-square-foot facility at 3945 S. Indianapolis Road.
The facility would be constructed near Exit 133 off Interstate 65. Timpte said it plans to spend about $2.2 million on the project.
It would be Timpte’s first Indiana operation and would create 14 jobs in Whitestown, paying an average wage of $26.62 an hour, with benefits valued at an additional $5 to $8 an hour, town documents state. The company would hire skilled, clerical and salaried employees.
