LANSING – State Representative Dudley Spade (D-Tipton) today announced that the Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA) Board approved a Standard Employed Tax Credit for K&S Wire Products, LLC in Hudson valued at $971,028 over seven years. The project is expected to result in $1.2 in investment in the community and 365 total jobs, including 157 direct jobs.
"Businesses like K&S are realizing what we in Lenawee County already know, Michigan has some of the premier manufacturing facilities in the country," Rep. Spade commented. "If we continue to bring in more job-creating industry and manufacturing like K&S-smart, innovative, technologies that are economically sustainable- we can revitalize our economy and put our citizens back to work. I would like to commend the City of Hudson and K&S President Tim Smith on being able to work together with MEDC to secure this tax credit and help put the people of Lenawee County back to work."
K & S Wire Products, a start up company, will manufacture steel wire shopping carts and is considering additional phases including a plastic cart product line, in-house powder coating, and refurbishment of used carts. The company chose Michigan over a competing site in Ohio. K&S currently has no presence in Michigan.
The company has identified a potential Michigan location in Hudson and plans to invest $1.2 million over the next five years, including the purchase of the shopping cart manufacturing equipment from the now closed United Steel and Wire (US&W). K & S Wire Products is hoping to capitalize on a void in the marketplace created by the recent closure of the two largest cart makers, US&W and "Tote". Tim Smith, president of K&S, was the plant manager at the Battle Creek Facility of US&W. Typically cart makers utilized very large and expensive facilities to fulfill multi-thousand cart orders with very little provision for custom orders. Mr. Smith believes that the business can be run with a much smaller facility, while still accommodating large and small production runs.
Capture of the orphan shopping cart market, created by the closure of the two large producers, is time critical and an important part of the proposed project. Particularly because carts from the two major manufacturers do not stack together, retailers that have carts that were produced by US&W or Tote, are unable at this time to enhance their fleet without utilizing a different manufacturer and replacing their existing carts.