Lubrication Technologies Announces Capital Investment Of $16 Million In Manufacturing Project

SHREVEPORT, La. – Today, Gov. Bobby Jindal and Lubrication Technologies Inc. CEO Chris Bame announced a $16 million capital investment by the company in Louisiana, where Lubrication Technologies will renovate a manufacturing facility in Shreveport, La. The project will create 75 new direct jobs with an average annual salary of more than $41,400 per year, plus benefits. LED estimates the project will result in an additional 205 indirect jobs, for a total of 280 new jobs in Louisiana.

Also known as Lube-Tech^®, the Minnesota-based company estimates another 58 construction jobs will be created during the renovation and construction phase. Lubrication Technologies will manufacture lubricants and related fluids for power sports, marine and outdoor power equipment markets. The Shreveport site represents Lube-Tech’s first major investment in the South.

Gov. Jindal said, “This new venture undertaken by Lubrication Technologies is a great win for our state and will create great new career opportunities for hundreds of families in Northwest Louisiana. We’re proud that Louisiana’s rapidly improving business climate and best-in-the-nation workforce programs attracted this significant manufacturing project in competition with other states in the South.”

The Lube-Tech operations in Shreveport will be located in a 226,000-square-foot manufacturing facility that once housed an automotive supplier for the former General Motors assembly plant in Shreveport. The Louisiana manufacturing center will enable the company to better serve key domestic customers in the South and to be in close proximity to its supply sources.

“Lube-Tech is excited to expand our Custom Brands business serving Power Sports, Marine and Outdoor Power Equipment OEMs to the Southern United States,” Bame said. “Our new Shreveport facility will manufacture, package and distribute specialty lubricants globally. We expect to employ 75 people by the end of 2016. We were pleased with Louisiana Economic Development’s help in finding a location, providing relocation funding, and assisting with employee recruitment and training. LED representatives proactively identified solutions to challenges in an entrepreneurial spirit that reflects our company culture.”   

LED began discussing expansion options with Lubrication Technologies in August 2013. To secure the project, the State of Louisiana offered the company a performance-based Economic Development Loan Program incentive of $750,000 and the comprehensive workforce solutions of LED FastStart^®, the nation’s No. 1 state workforce development program. In addition, the company is expected to utilize the state’s Quality Jobs and Industrial Tax Exemption programs.

Based in North Golden Valley, Minn., Lubrication Technologies is a private company with customers in transportation, automotive, industrial and small-engine markets. The company ships products globally to customers in more than 70 countries.

For the Louisiana project, Lubrication Technologies will begin construction in the first quarter of 2014, with hiring beginning shortly thereafter and leading to 35 new jobs created by mid-2015. The additional 40 positions will be filled by 2016.

“The Caddo Parish Commission is delighted about the prospect that Lubrication Technologies has entered into an agreement to locate its operations here in the Parish of Caddo and to make a capital investment of $16 million and hire 75 employees over a two-year period,” said President Doug Dominick of the Caddo Parish Commission. “This is great news.”

“North Louisiana Economic Partnership worked with state and local partners to recruit Lubrication Technologies to fill an existing building which was shuttered after a GM supplier left the area,” NLEP President Scott Martinez said. “The 280 new direct and indirect jobs created by Lubrication Technologies will have a significant impact on the Shreveport-Bossier economy.”

About Lubrication Technologies
Lubrication Technologies Inc. has a history dating back to 1925. Lubrication Technologies is a Minnesota-based, privately held company that manufactures, processes and distributes lubricants, fuels and fluids for use in transportation, automotive, industrial and small-engine markets. For more information, visit lube-tech.com.