Louisville-based company has operated in Kentucky for over 40 years
FRANKFORT, Ky. (Sept. 12, 2022) – Today, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Chemical & Industrial (C&I) Engineering Inc., a full-service engineering firm, will expand the company’s operations in Louisville with a $264,000 investment that will create 24 full-time jobs.
“Kentucky’s economy is strong and growing with companies across a wide range of industries continuing to expand,” said Gov. Beshear. “C&I Engineering has been serving its customer base here in Kentucky for almost four decades, and its expansion is a welcome next step. I am thankful for the company’s leadership and their commitment to the commonwealth and continued investment in Louisville. I look forward to their growth and future success.”
This investment is a critical step for C&I in deciding where to hire staff and invest capital in state-of-the-art technology such as drones, scanners, engineering software and IT infrastructure. C&I will leverage this investment along with concerted efforts to boost marketing and sales to create 24 quality jobs, including engineering professionals and skilled technical talent. This growth will allow C&I to provide its services to a diverse set of clients across the U.S.
“C&I is proud to be a Kentucky company,” said Amanda Barmore, C&I’s business development and marketing manager. “Our values are deeply rooted in local employee ownership. We look forward to expanding our business, while bringing highly compensated, technical jobs to the commonwealth.”
Founded in Louisville in 1983, C&I is a full-service engineering firm focused on executing projects in a collaborative environment using world-class tools and techniques.
C&I provides its services to a range of industries, including petroleum refining, and are ranked by Engineering News-Record as one of the top 15 companies in the United States providing engineering services to this industry.
In addition, C&I serves the distilled spirits, chemical, food and beverage, consumer packaged goods and utilities markets. Given the evolving nature of the U.S. energy landscape, the company understands the importance of focusing its growth toward these complementing industries. Beyond its core engineering services, C&I also provides thermal imaging via drones and 3-D laser scanning. The company currently employs 150 in the Louisville Metro area.
C&I Engineering’s investment adds to Kentucky’s growing engineering services sector, which employs more than 10,600 individuals statewide. There are currently over 1,000 engineering service establishments throughout the commonwealth that produced $1.4 billion in GDP for the state in 2021.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said he is thrilled to see local companies growing and continuing the economic momentum in the area.
“Companies continue to see the high-value proposition of doing business in Louisville,” said Mayor Fischer. “Since the start of this year, companies have announced plans to invest more than $484 million to locate or grow here, adding nearly 2,000 new jobs to our local economy. It is particularly special to celebrate the expansion of home-grown companies like C&I Engineering, which continue to invest in our city and create more high-quality jobs. Congratulations to C&I Engineering on its continued growth in Louisville!”
C&I Engineering’s investment and planned job creation furthers recent economic momentum in the commonwealth, as the state builds back stronger from the effects of the pandemic.
In 2021, the commonwealth shattered every economic development record in the books. Private-sector new-location and expansion announcements included a record $11.2 billion in total planned investment and commitments to create a record 18,000-plus full-time jobs across the coming years. Kentucky’s average incentivized hourly wage for projects statewide in 2021 was $24 before benefits, a 9.4% increase over the previous year.
In the past year, the Beshear administration announced the two largest economic development projects in state history. In September 2021, Gov. Beshear and leaders from Ford Motor Co. and SK Innovation celebrated a transformative $5.8 billion investment that will create 5,000 jobs in Hardin County. And in April of this year, the Governor was joined by leadership at Envision AESC to announce a $2 billion investment that will create 2,000 jobs in Warren County. These announcements solidify Kentucky as the EV battery production capital of the United States.
The economic momentum has carried strongly into 2022, with both S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings upgrading Kentucky’s financial outlook to positive in recognition of the commonwealth’s surging economy.
And Site Selection magazine placed Kentucky at 6th in its annual Prosperity Cup rankings for 2022, which recognizes state-level economic success based on capital investments.
Kentucky has posted record low unemployment rates for four consecutive months, falling from 3.9% in April to 3.8% in May and 3.7% in June and July.
In July, the Governor reported the highest annual growth rate in 31 years. And for the second year in a row, Kentucky’s General Fund budget surplus has exceeded $1 billion. Also in July, Gov. Beshear reported that the state’s rainy day fund is up to a record balance of $2.7 billion, significantly higher than the $129 million balance the fund had when the Governor took office.
To encourage investment and job growth in the community, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) in August preliminarily approved a 10-year incentive agreement with the company under the Kentucky Business Investment program. The performance-based agreement can provide up to $250,000 in tax incentives based on the company’s investment of $264,000 and annual targets of:
- Creation and maintenance of 24 Kentucky-resident, full-time jobs across 10 years; and
- Paying an average hourly wage of $55 including benefits across those jobs.
By meeting its annual targets over the agreement term, the company can be eligible to keep a portion of the new tax revenue it generates. The company may claim eligible incentives against its income tax liability and/or wage assessments.
In addition, C&I Engineering can receive resources from Kentucky’s workforce service providers. Those include no-cost recruitment and job placement services, reduced-cost customized training and job-training incentives.
For more information on C&I Engineering, visit cieng.com.
A detailed community profile for Jefferson County can be viewed here.
Information on Kentucky’s economic development efforts and programs is available at CED.ky.gov. Fans of the Cabinet for Economic Development can also join the discussion at facebook.com/CEDkygov, on Twitter @CEDkygov, Instagram @CEDkygov and LinkedIn.
Read about other key updates, actions and information from Gov. Beshear and his administration at governor.ky.gov, kycovid19.ky.gov and the Governor’s official social media accounts Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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