ThisWeek CW 05/16/2013
Thanks to a new partnership with Honda, TS Trim — Canal Winchester’s largest employer — plans to add 41 jobs to its workforce and nearly $3 million to its payroll.
The city is offering the company a 30-percent income tax credit that it wasn’t eligible for in October when it received approval to nearly double its manufacturing capacity with an 85,000-square-foot addition at its 6380 Canal St. location.
The new space was added in anticipation of the potential Honda of America work. At the time, however, the order from Honda hadn’t been awarded yet and the expansion did not receive any specific incentives, although it was eligible for the 15-year, 100-percent tax abatement already covering the property, City Development Director Lucas Haire said.
With 401 employees, TS Trim is already Canal Winchester’s largest employer.
“TS Trim is in the middle of an expansion on Canal Street, adding on to the building and consolidating work from their Diley Road location,” he said. “This gave them the opportunity to bid on new work with the additional space and, during the design process, plan for it.”
TS Trim has partnered with Honda to expand its capacity for producing parts for the automobile manufacturer.
“After winning the new work, they have new employees they need to hire that weren’t budgeted for at the beginning,” Haire said. “So we’re offering them a 30-percent income tax credit, which is a similar deal as what we offered to Associates Title recently.
“The 41 new employees is a significant payroll gain, about $2.88 million, which we credit back 30 percent over three years if TS Trim maintains that employment level for five years.”
The incentive will provide TS Trim with a 30-percent income tax credit for 41 new employees to be hired over the next two years; they are expected to be retained for five years.
This equates to a tax benefit of $67,000 for TS Trim over the three-year period and a direct benefit to the city of $340,000 over the five-year period, according to Haire.
“Hopefully, this will lead to even more opportunities to convert warehouse space into production space,” Haire said. “There’s still more room on that property to continue to expand the building, as well.”
According to Haire, TS Trim intends to complete the expansion by the July 4 weekend, after its annual closure for retooling. The company will reopen at full capacity.