After about a year and a half since they broke ground at Dover’s Garrison Oak Technical Park, German flooring company Uzin Utz’s dry mortar plant is now open for business.
The $13.5 million dollar, 64,000 square foot facility now employs 15 workers to run its research and consumer testing facilities. Once they add a second shift, the company expects to hire about 10 more skilled workers at the Dover location. The plant aims to produce 25,000 tons of leveling and patching compound annually and 15,000 tons of tile adhesive for the North American Market by 2018.
Philipp Utz, president of Uzin Utz, says that a combination of a skilled workforce and business incentives made Delaware an ideal place to set up shop.
“Delaware is a very pro business state, especially for small and medium sized businesses," said Utz. "Not a lot of places in the U.S. where you can get a 10-acre land for a very discounted price.”
State officials are also looking to raise Delaware’s international profile. Governor Markell recently returned from Germany, where he met with business leaders.
“Employers like Uzin Utz have choices," said Markell. "They can go anywhere. But in the end it’s really whether they see in us a partner who’s going to help them get things done or whether they see us as a bureaucracy.”
Markell added that this attitude is what attracts global businesses to Delaware, such as AB Group, an Irish packaging company that will open its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Newark before the end of the year.
