Global Investment Creates Extraterrestrial Innovation and Hometown Jobs in Alabama
August 24, 2017By Sandor Galambos, SelectUSA Investment Specialist based in the U.S. Embassy in Switzerland.
Leaders from RUAG Space and the State of Alabama ceremonially open the Swiss company’s first U.S. manufacturing facility.
RUAG Space, a Switzerland-based company, recently cut the ribbon on its first U.S. manufacturing facility, taking a major step to propel growth in the United States. The 130,000 square-foot facility in Decatur, Alabama, will produce high-tech equipment for launch vehicles for outer space operations and will create opportunities for workers in Alabama.
RUAG announced the facility in 2015 and has already created 50 new jobs there, with a plan to increase to 100 jobs over the next two years. The Alabama facility is the beginning for RUAG’s investment in the United States; the company is also in various stages of starting operations at facilities in in Florida, Colorado, and California.
RUAG is expanding in the United States for many of the same reasons why other global companies look to grow their businesses here. RUAG facilities will be at the cutting edge of the space industry, and this level of technology requires a workforce that is both innovative and reliable—the kind of workforce we have in the United States.
The company will also be closer to many of its primary customers, which will allow it to be more responsive to the needs of the industry it serves.
SelectUSA and the economic development team in Alabama have been working with RUAG Space since 2015 to help the company find the best opportunities to expand in the United States. The company attended the SelectUSA Investment Summit in 2016, making more connections in the United States and gaining insight into the regulatory issues relevant to the aerospace industry.
This success story is important for the economic development community, and providing support to RUAG Space and sharing their positive results can help other companies find their own success opportunity in the United States.
To learn more about how foreign-owned companies like RUAG Space are supporting jobs in the United States, check out the data available at SelectUSA.gov.
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