Abbott: Utilities were key in decision to build in Tipp City

Instead, a redundant power supply, plentiful water and the ability to handle the plant’s waste spurred the decision to build in southern Miami County.

“Utilities were huge,” Stirrat told a I-70/75 Development Association meeting.s

Company leaders weighed building the plant in Tipp City, Franklin, Ind. and in Ontario, Canada.

“This was a regional effort to get Abbott here,” said Brad Vath, Tipp City assistant city manager.

The nutritional drinks plant off County Road 25A will begin operating next year and could have a third production line 2018 and perhaps a fourth line in early 2020, employing a total of 400 to 450 employees, Stirrat said. And if the plant reaches the right production milestones, about 500 million bottles, that might require the relocation of a supporting bottling facility. But Stirrat emphasized that such a move isn’t imminent.

“If there was an opportunity (for a vendor to move closer to the company’s Tipp City plant), it would be on the bottling side of the business,” he said after his prepared remarks.

An Abbot spokeswoman asked for time to gather information Friday before answering questions about the possibility of an Abbot vendor moving closer to the Tipp City plant.

The plant — for which ground was broken in April — received $9.2 million in incentives. The Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved a 75 percent, 15-year job creation tax credit worth an estimated $8 million. And Tipp City approved an incentives package worth more than $1.2 million, including an agreement to build a new access road.

Stirrat said Abbott — which will soon undergo a corporate split — is finding the employees it needs locally. “We’ve been able to find top talent,” he said. “I’m sure there are some companies around the area that aren’t happy with us.”

The company needs not just line operators, but “operator-mechanics,” people who can service the machines they use, such as a $20 million bottle filler machine imported from Japan, he added.

“There will probably be very few minimum wage people there,” Stirrat said.

Besides utilities, the proximity of interstates 70 and 75 were key to the company’s decision to build in Tipp City, Stirrat said. He said the “only downside” to the location was its lack of rail.

The Tipp City plant will serve North America as well as export product to Southeast Asia, Stirrat said. Abbott is also building plants in China and India as it builds in Tipp City.