New state-of-the-art facility opens at special inauguration ceremony on June 10
South Boston, Virginia, June 9, 2008 – ABB, the leading power and automation technology company, announced today that it has completed a major expansion of its small power transformer operations in South Boston, Virginia.
ABB will officially open and dedicate the new facility at a special ceremony to be held June 10 in South Boston.
The newly-completed ABB South Boston manufacturing facility, first announced in 2006, will occupy 90,000 square feet. This expansion involved a $28.6 million investment from the state of Virginia and ABB. The investment will create 127 new jobs, which is expected to bring the total employment to 600 by the end of the year.
The ABB South Boston facility – originally opened in 1968 – will produce liquid-cooled power transformers up to 75 Mega-Volt-Amps (MVA) and 161 Kilo-Volt-Amps (KVA) as a result of the expansion. The plant ships approximately 2,000 units per year to major utility, industrial and government users. One of ABB South Boston’s largest recent projects involved producing units used in the extraction of crude oil from the sand in western Canada. South Boston supplied over 100 transformers rated up to 20 MVA.
“ABB continues to see a growing demand for our power products and services among utilities as we help them replace aging infrastructure equipment, improve energy efficiency and deliver power more reliably,” said Enrique Santacana, president and chief executive officer of ABB in North America. “ABB’s small power transformer expansion in South Boston is a very significant part of our commitment to meet these demands for substations throughout the power grid.”
ABB’s Partnership with Halifax County
ABB worked closely with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and the Halifax County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) to secure grants and funding for the new state-of-the-art facility, by far the largest of ABB’s three expansion efforts in Halifax County since 1968.
"We appreciate ABB’s decision to choose Halifax County for this major expansion,” said William Fitzgerald, chairman of the Halifax County Board of Supervisors. “ABB has been an excellent corporate citizen, and we pledge the full support of Halifax County to ensure their continued success.”
Patsy Vaughan, Interim Executive Director of the Industrial Development Authority of Halifax County, stated, “’Existing Industry’ is our best prospect in creating jobs and investment in our community. We are grateful to ABB for making the decision to reinvest in Halifax County.”
“We are grateful to the Halifax County Industrial Development Authority, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the Virginia Department of Business Assistance and the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission for their generosity, hard work and partnership with us in making this new facility – and the jobs that come with it – a reality,” said Milton Axton, vice president and general manager, ABB South Boston. “I believe South Boston is clearly the best choice for this expansion since it builds on an already-excellent reputation for results by our experienced Virginia-based employees, using world-class ABB transformer technology.”
Grand Opening Ceremony
The official inauguration ceremony will take place on June 10 at 2 pm EDT. Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Patrick Gottschalk will be in attendance and many other state and local dignitaries. Enrique Santacana, Greg Scheu, head of ABB Power Products Division in North America, Robert Suter, senior vice president for the Small Power Transformers product group with ABB Ltd, and other company executives will also be present at the event.
About ABB
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs more than 110,000 people. The company's North American operations, headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, employ about 12,000 people in 20 manufacturing and other major facilities.
