Amway Corporation will invest some $81 million in a new state-of-the-art vitamin, mineral and dietary supplement manufacturing facility at its Spaulding Avenue site in Ada, which will create 200 jobs over the next three years.
The company will develop the facility to manufacture its Nutrilite brand of products, the first Michigan-based facility for
Nutrilite, which will continue to be produced at existing plants in Buena Park, CA and Quincy, WA. Expansions at those two facilities, combined, will total $74 million and produce 30 jobs in Quincy.
Construction in Ada will begin in early 2013 and will be complete in 2015, says George Calvert, VP of supply chain and R & D. The jobs created span a variety of skill sets, including plant management, equipment management, process management, chemical engineering, materials planning, materials purchasing, inventory control, tableting and softgel encapsulation.
"Manufacturing will use advance work systems where we flow people to the work," Calvert says. "Our technicians will be cross-trained across a variety of skill sets; the people we hire will get a lot of training and we'll work to enhance their skills."
Calvert says Nutrilite is the world's number one selling vitamin brand and sales represent 45 percent of Amway's business. A company media release states that Nutrilite sales were $4.7 billion in 2011.
"Nutrilite grew 17 percent last year and we're out of capacity in California and Washington," Calvert says. "We looked at building in California and in the southeast and southwest of the United States, but the better thing for us and for the community was to put the plant right there on Spaulding."
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation approved a $1.6 million incentive from the Michigan Business Development Program to support construction of the new facility.
Source: George Calvert, Amway Corporation; Media Release, Michigan Economic Development Corporation
Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor
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