MilliporeSigma plans to add 175 jobs at its Town of Wilson manufacturing facility in Sheboygan County as part of a $64 million expansion.
The company, which employs roughly 1,000 people in the state, has already begun work on an 80,000-square-foot facility that will house stains and dyes and flavors and fragrance operations. Gov. Scott Walker joined company executives Tuesday for a groundbreaking ceremony and the announcement of $1.25 million in state tax credits for the project.
BizTimes first reported on the incentives and the company’s planned investment last week.
“With the already skilled labor and the necessary chemical manufacturing technology and infrastructure, this site is an ideal choice,” said Udit Batra, MilliporeSigma chief executive officer.
Batra said the decision to expand in Wisconsin started with a meeting with Gov. Scott Walker in Germany in 2015. Batra also visited with the governor in Madison earlier this year.
“Today’s announcement is a culmination of the work that has gone on since that time,” he said.
MilliporeSigma is the life sciences business of Merck KGaA, which is not affiliated with pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Merck KGaA acquired St. Louis-based Sigma-Aldrich in 2015 for $17 billion and currently has 19,000 employees and 65 manufacturing sites worldwide.
“We have come a long way from a manufacturer of catalog chemicals,” Batra said, referencing the company’s Wisconsin roots as the Aldrich Corp, which was founded in 1951 in Milwaukee. Sigma and Aldrich merged in 1975 to create Sigma-Aldrich, which Merck acquired 40 years later.
The Town of Wilson facility is located on 513 acres. In addition to those operations, MilliporeSigma has operations in the Madison area and one of its largest distribution facilities is in Milwaukee.
“As a global company with operations on five continents, MilliporeSigma had numerous location options for this facility and I commend the company for making this commitment to Wisconsin,” Walker said.
