MENASHA, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A company in the Fox Valley is expanding, adding more than 200 new jobs.
Faith Technologies announced Thursday it is building a 225,000 square-foot building in Little Chute that will serve as its Excellerate’s headquarters.
The energy company currently has five Excellerate manufacturing hubs throughout North America, including ones in Oshkosh, Neenah, and Appleton.
The Oshkosh and Neenah locations will continue to focus on manufacturing and assembly work for electrical construction, while the new Little Chute headquarters will be the hub for construction innovation in the areas of energy, microgrids, modular-builds, e-houses, and specialty engineering.
The building will also feature a natural energy microgrid.
Construction on the new headquarters is expected to start in the spring of 2019 and be completed by the fall.
“It’s a large company, a lot of places to grow,” said James Golembeski, the executive director of Bay Area Workforce Development. “They pay well. They have good benefits.”
Golembeski tells FOX Faith Technologies’ expansion announcement will likely be the first of many for 2019.
That’s because a recent survey conducted by Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance of 164 area manufacturers found 34 percent are planning plant expansions in the year ahead.
59 percent of the companies are planning to hire in the first quarter of the year, which is a record for the nine years the survey has been conducted.
“When unemployment is at 2.8 percent there are not a lot of people without jobs,” said Golembeski.
“What we have are a lot of people that don’t have good jobs.”
Golembeski says focusing on the underemployed sector should help fill the area’s manufacturing jobs, including the ones at Faith Technologies.
“They’re going to be looking throughout the area, finding those people that want to step up and we’re going to help them find them.”
No word on the pay that might come with the new jobs.
