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Wabash National Corp. has announced plans to locate a new semi trailer manufacturing facility in Franklin that is expected to create up to 460 new full-time jobs within two years.

The Indiana-based company plans to build a 300,000-square-foot plant on 60 acres in the Sanders Interstate Park. Total project costs are estimated to be approximately $26 million.

Established in 1985 and headquartered in Lafayette, Ind., Wabash National specializes in the design and production of dry freight vans, refrigerated vans, flatbed trailers, drop deck trailers and intermodal equipment. The company has approximately 4,000 employees throughout the United States and Canada and reported net sales of $1.1 billion for 2007. Its core products are sold under the DuraPlate, ArcticLite and Eagle brand names. The new Kentucky plant will produce DuraPlate and FreightPro dry van trailers.

The company also operates two wholly-owned subsidiaries: Transcraft® Corp., a manufacturer of flatbed and drop deck trailers, and Wabash National Trailer Centers, trailer service centers and retail distributors of new and used trailers and aftermarket parts. One of Transcraft’s two manufacturing facilities is located in Mt. Sterling, Ky.

Wabash National President and CEO Dick Giromini said the new Franklin plant “is a key building block of our long-term, strategic growth plan.
“Our goal,” said Giromini, “is to create a business and manufacturing process that is more efficient, less complex and better suited to generate long-term shareholder value.”

The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority has granted preliminary approval for Wabash National Corp. to receive tax benefits up to $4 million under the Kentucky Industrial Development Act, an incentive program designed to attract and expand manufacturing employment in the state.

Simpson County Judge-Executive Jim Henderson credited the newly opened Franklin Technical College with helping boost the community’s business profile.
“The new technical college was an important feature that made our site competitive against dozens of other sites throughout the Southeast,” Henderson said.

Western Kentucky University is now home to a new cyber defense lab designed to ward off attacks to the U.S. Department of Defense’s computer networks.
The Network Attack Characterization Modeling and Simulation Testbed, or NACMAST, is a collaborative effort between WKU, Mississippi State University, University of Arizona and EDAptive Computing Inc. sponsored by the Army Research Lab, Center for Intrusion Monitoring and Protection. The prime contractor is Electronic Warfare Associates Government Systems Inc. (EWA). The testbed is a series of computers designed to develop and test tools to protect Department of Defense computer networks.

NACMAST is funded by $2.8 million in defense appropriations secured by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. The testbed is located in a 1,200-s.f. Cyber Defense Lab built by WKU at the Innovation and Commercialization Center and funded by a $269,000 contract with EWA.

Blaine Ferrell, dean of WKU’s Ogden College of Science and Engineering, said the research being conducted in association with NACMAST includes undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty and fits in well with the push to increase the science, technology, engineering and math student pipeline in Kentucky. “It’s only when you have this caliber activity going, that captures the imagination of students and makes them realize they can do this kind of work in Kentucky, that you will have more students pursuing science, engineering and mathematics degrees,” he said.    

WKU’s role in the collaboration includes hosting the physical plant and establishing and maintaining the development network, developing and maintaining test data sets, establishing test plans and procedures, conducting analyses, certifying test results and providing input into the modeling and simulation process.

Hopkinsville Community College has been awarded $2.39 million in funding from the United States Department of Labor that will be used to advance manufacturing in 18 western Kentucky counties.

“This funding will have a large scale region-wide impact in terms of jobs, economic impact and manufacturing development,” said HCC President and CEO Dr. James E. Selbe, noting that the grant “dovetails perfectly” with the direction and mission of the college and the vision of what the college can do to enhance the economic vitality and prosperity of the region.

The grant will help fund the HCC Industrial Talent Enhancement Model (ITEM) program, which brings together community and technical colleges, public school districts, businesses, community centers and local chambers of commerce to provide training for current and future manufacturing employees.

Haas Automation Inc., a California-based machine tool and equipment manufacturer, has opened a technical education center at the University of Louisville.

The Haas Technical Education Center is located within the J.B. Speed School of Engineering’s Rapid Prototyping Center. The prototyping center provides industrial users ranging from Fortune 100 companies to individual inventors with access to the problem-solving technology required to make prototypes and working parts from a wide range of plastics and metals.

In making UofL a regional technical education center, Haas is able to demonstrate its newest technology to potential users and buyers and UofL engineering students have the opportunity learn about equipment they will use in the workplace.
The company currently has six pieces of Haas machinery: two lathes, a tool-room mill, a mold-milling machine, a horizontal machining center (used in automotive and heavy manufacturing) and a vertical machining center (used in mold-and-die shops and production facilities).

Faced with declining sales of its sports utility vehicles, Ford Motor Co. has announced that it will eliminate the second shift at its Louisville Assembly Plant by the end of this summer.  The decision will affect approximately 800 of the 2,200 employees at the plant.

Ford had hoped to achieve the majority of its cutbacks through a companywide buy-out plan offered to all hourly workers. The buy-out offered several options to workers, with lump sum offers ranging from $50,000 to $140,000 and an array of health care or education subsidies.

However, only 137 workers at the LAP have accepted the buy-out.
According to Ford officials, the change to a one-shift production pattern does not affect production volume but instead allows the plants to operate more efficiently by operating continuously and reducing “down weeks.” In recent years, Ford has utilized week-long plant shutdowns in an effort to better align production with demand.

Ford continues to underscore its long-term commitment to the company’s operations at both the Louisville Assembly Plant and the Kentucky Truck Plant. (The Kentucky Truck Plant employs around 4,000 workers who produce the company’s F-series trucks.) Those plans include investing in a new body shop and new product at the Louisville Assembly Plant by 2010. (The last Ford Explorer is slated to come off the line in August 2009.)

Ford has been approved for a $60 million tax incentive package by the state government and the city of Louisville that can be used for improvements and upgrades at the Kentucky Truck Plant. That package can also be renegotiated for additional investments at either of the Louisville Ford facilities.

1st Independence Financial Group, the Louisville-based parent company of 1st Independence Bank, has signed a definitive agreement to merge with MainSource Financial Group Inc., of Greensburg, Ind. Under the merger agreement, 1st Bank will become a wholly owned subsidiary of MainSource and will operate as MainSource Bank-Kentucky.

Based on MainSource’s closing price of $14.60 per share on Feb. 26, 2008, the transaction is valued at $37 million.

1st Independence Bank has eight full-service banking offices located in Harrodsburg, Lawrenceburg, and Louisville, Ky., and New Albany,  Jeffersonville, Marengo and Clarksville, Ind., as well as 1st Independence Mortgage offices in Louisville and southern Indiana. MainSource operates 65 offices in 30 Indiana counties, six offices in three Illinois counties, and five offices in two Ohio counties through its three banking subsidiaries: MainSource Bank, Greensburg, Ind.; MainSource Bank of Illinois, Kankakee, Ill.; and MainSource Bank-Ohio, Troy, Ohio. MainSource also operates insurance and title subsidiaries.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of the year.

The city of Louisville is awarding $1 million in college scholarships to help Louisville residents complete their associate’s degrees.

The KentuckianaWorks Scholars program will help 500 people in the 2008-2009 academic year by giving them up to $3,000 for tuition and up to $600 for books and supplies. The scholarship fund is part of Graduate Greater Louisville, a new initiative unveiled in February that is designed to increase the city’s education level.

The most recent update to the KentuckianaWorks Human Capital Scorecard, prepared by Dr. Paul Coomes at the University of Louisville, showed that 2,458 associate’s degrees were awarded in the Louisville area in 2006, ranking the region ninth among 16 peer cities. By adding 500 additional associate’s degrees and continuing at the same growth rate, the metro region would jump to fifth.

“Raising the educational level in Louisville is one of the most important things we can do to shape the future of our region – for both our individual citizens and for economic development,” said Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson.

The $1 million comes from the Workforce Investment Act, the federal government’s principal investment in raising the skills of adult workers. The $1 million will be awarded to students who have a year left to finish their associate’s degrees. Students must complete college by December 2009 and maintain at least a “C” average.

A Louisville marketing, public relations and design agency has been recognized by Working Mother magazine as one of the nation’s 25 best women-owned companies.
Corecubed was founded in 1998 by Merrily Orsini, who employs a “rather unorthodox” method for running her company: All corecubed employees operate from home and are located throughout the country. Without being tied to one locale, Orsini says she is able to recruit the best of the best when adding to her creative staff.

“Empowering employees with a results-oriented mindset rather than being time-centric (basing progress on accomplishments and goals rather than just clocking in eight hours) has proven to be a wild success for corecubed,” said Orsini. “Everyone on my team is highly professional and passionate about what they do, and it shows through in our client results.”

In selecting its top 25 companies, Working Mother considered factors such as flexible scheduling, creative family-friendly benefits, dedication to community and advancement of female employees. Previous recipients of the honor include Discovery Communications, McGraw-Hill, Rodale, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs.

Site Selection magazine’s annual Governor’s Cup ranking for 2007 places Kentucky 10th in the nation for new and expanded industry activity in 2007. The ranking is based on a state’s total number of qualified projects as tracked by Conway Data Inc.’s New Plant database.

Qualified projects include those that meet at least one of three criteria: (1) involve a capital investment of at least $1 million, (2) create 50 or more jobs or (3) add at least 20,000 square feet of new floor space.  During 2007, Kentucky generated 199 projects that met the database requirements.  In total, 316 location or expansion announcements were reported in Kentucky, resulting in 13,371 net new jobs created.  Investment was estimated at more than $2.3 billion. Kentucky has the smallest population of any state ranked in the Top 10.

Site Selection publisher Conway Data has showcased the annual Governor’s Cup rankings since 1978, and its yearly analyses are regarded by corporate real estate analysts as “the industry scoreboard.”  The magazine’s circulation base consists of 44,000 executives involved in corporate site selection decisions.

In addition to the Governor’s Cup, three Kentucky metro areas were recognized in their respective categories for the number of industry location and expansion projects.  For metro areas with populations over one million, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky/Middletown, Ohio/Ky./Ind. finished second with 111 qualifying projects. Lexington-Fayette County tied for 10th place with 22 projects in the second tier of metros, communities with populations between 200,000 and one million.  Bowling Green tied for sixth place with nine projects in the third tier of metros, which includes those with a population between 50,000 and 200,000.

Six smaller Kentucky communities also fared well in the magazine’s Top Micropolitan Ranking. Glasgow, Paducah, Danville, Frankfort, Madisonville and Mayfield made the 2007 Top Micropolitan list, giving Kentucky a fifth-place ranking for the most top micros.

Kentucky’s annual unemployment rate decreased to 5.5 percent in 2007 from 5.8 percent in 2006, while gaining 22,200 jobs and posting the highest number of nonfarm jobs in Kentucky’s history, according to the Kentucky Department for Workforce Investment.

The U.S. unemployment rate remained at 4.6 percent in 2007, making it the lowest annual U.S. unemployment rate since 2000, when it was 4 percent.
“This is the fourth consecutive year of job growth in Kentucky,” said Justine Detzel, chief labor market analyst in the Office of Employment and Training. “In the last decade, we have added a net total of 116,200 nonfarm jobs. In addition, the 2007 annual unemployment rate of 5.5 percent is the lowest in Kentucky since 2001 when it was 5.2 percent.”

On the down side, the manufacturing sector lost 5,000 jobs in 2007 for a total of 255,700 positions in that sector. In the last 10 years, the manufacturing sector has reported 50,800 fewer jobs.

There has also been a significant drop in the nondurable good subsector. “Most of the job losses in the nondurable goods subsector occurred in the apparel industry, which has declined by 13,200 jobs over the past 10 years,” Detzel said. “Overall, there has been a 76 percent drop in the total number of apparel industry jobs in Kentucky in the last 10 years.”

A modest increase in broadband adoption could add $134 billion annually to the U.S. economy according to research released by Connected Nation, a national non-profit organization.

The study analyzed the success of ConnectKentucky, a public-private partnership that has significantly increased broadband access in the Bluegrass State, and extrapolated the potential direct economic stimulus for the nation.
Surveying the impact of its first state-based program, the ConnectedNation report indicates a higher rate of growth in broadband adoption in Kentucky – 83 percent – versus the national trend of 57 percent.

“At a time of $100-per-barrel oil prices, economic stagnation and rising inequality, Connected Nation offers a chance to address our nation’s greatest challenges,” said Larry Irving, co-chair of the Internet Innovation Alliance, a coalition of non-profit organization, businesses and trade associations committed to universal broadband. “Greater broadband deployment can restore economic growth, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and expand opportunities for those who have been left behind.”

Kentucky’s High-Tech Investment Pool has awarded a total of $969,000 in funding to two young Kentucky companies to help further advanced technology projects.
The projects being pursued by 3DR Laboratories LLC of Louisville and dbaDirect Inc. of Florence will create a total of 39 full-time, high-tech jobs.

3DR is a radiology information technology service company that provides diagnostic imaging facilities with the ability to outsource their 3D image processing. 3DR is being awarded up to $500,000 to purchase IT infrastructure necessary for the company to perform 3D image processing. The company, which is currently a client of the Louisville Innovation and Commercialization Center, employs a staff of four and anticipates creating at least 20 more jobs with average annual salaries of $62,000 by the end of 2010.

dbaDirect is an information technology managed services provider that presently employs 83 people. The company manages more than 100 corporate database environments throughout the nation, including financial services companies, hospitals, national retail chains and manufacturing and service firms. A client of the Northern Kentucky Innovation and Commercialization Center, dbaDirect has been awarded up to $469,000 in funding, which will be used to enhance the company’s technology infrastructure. The company anticipates adding a minimum of 19 positions with an average annual salary of $75,000 by the end of 2010.

Kentucky has launched a new state program that will administer $5 million in public funds for investment in promising renewable and alternative energy companies in the commonwealth.

The New Energy Ventures program will target high-growth potential, early-stage Kentucky-based companies that are developing and commercializing alternative fuel and/or renewable energy technologies. Funds will be provided in the form of relatively small “seed” grants and through equity investments of varying amounts.

“This program is designed for companies that have unique and competitive products and technologies that have or will have intellectual property protection,” said Economic Development Cabinet Secretary John Hindman. “Companies applying for these grants and investments must demonstrate that their technologies are commercially viable and that they can lead a successful business venture.”

The program is being administered by the Kentucky Science and Technology Corp., an independent non-profit company.  Application forms and guidelines are available at www.startupkentucky.com.