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Midmark Corp., a producer of medical, dental and veterinary equipment, will expand its Versailles manufacturing facility and open new offices in Dayton’s Tech Town business park, moving 57 employees to the city, the company said Friday.
While jobs are moving to Dayton, there will be no net change in the company’s total employment, said Anne Klamar, Midmark president and chief executive. The company has 1,500 employees worldwide, including 850 in Versailles.
“Our headquarters will remain here in Versailles, Ohio,” Klamar said. Midmark also has offices in West Chester.
Klamar said the company wants to prepare for future growth while tapping into technologies being developed at Tech Town, the University of Dayton and its research institute, Wright State University, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and other Dayton-area tech hubs.
Midmark said there will be a 100,000-square-foot expansion of two plants in Versailles, which today total about 320,000 square feet. The new space would let Midmark improve materials-management processes and add new equipment, the company said.
Midmark wants to complete the expansion by late 2013.
“We really want to position the company for future growth,” Klamar said. “There’s just a lot of really great stuff going on in Dayton.
“Our goal is to grow,” she added. “I can’t commit to any number of jobs.”
While Midmark remains product-oriented, Klamar said she wants the company to develop new services. She declined to give examples, saying it was too early.
The health care market is very “disrupted” today, she said, and likely will remain so until the U.S. Supreme Court issues a ruling on the constitutionality of President Obama’s health reform legislation. Meanwhile, dental and veterinary markets are growing, Klamar said.
The company has been working on the move for more than a year, she said.
Darke County’s public-private economic development agency, Partnering for Progress, worked with Midmark to secure $2.6 million in Ohio tax incentives for the Versailles expansion, the company said. The village of Versailles has also offered incentives for Midmark’s project, the company said.
Midmark is on the Ohio Tax Credit Authority agenda for its meeting Monday in Columbus.
The project is contingent on approval of state and local incentives, Midmark said. It’s also in lease discussions for the move to Tech Town, a business park for companies focused on developing new technologies. CityWide Development, the city of Dayton’s development arm, oversees Tech Town.
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