5-hour Energy to add up to 200 jobs in Wabash

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5-hour Energy to add up to 200 jobs in Wabash

News-Sentinel staff reports

Thursday, October 11, 2012

5-hour Energy energized Wabash on Wednesday with the news it would bring up to 200 new jobs to town by 2013. Its the fourth time Living Essentials, the parent company of 5-hour Energy has expanded its operations in Wabash, the Indiana Economic Development Corp. announced Wednesday.

The company, which produces, packages and distributes 5-hour Energy, will invest more than $25.5 million to construct and equip a manufacturing building on 46 acres in the Wabash Business Complex. The facility, which will total 1 million square feet in two to three phases, will be the company's third location in Wabash, bringing its total footprint in the community to more than 1.8 million square feet.

Living Essentials, which currently employs 370 Hoosiers, will begin hiring new engineering, manufacturing and administrative associates immediately. The facility will add capacity for up to four new production lines and is expected to be operational next September, state officials said.

Headquartered in Farmington Hills, Mich., Living Essentials initially moved its production operations to Wabash in 2007 and located its distribution center there a year later. Since then, it has expanded its northeast Indiana campus twice in 2010 with the addition of eight production lines and the company's research and development operations, totaling more than $55 million in capital investment.

Today, Living Essentials makes more than 9 million bottles of 5-hour Energy per week at its Wabash plant. The 57-milliliter dietary supplements are sold in retail and convenience stores in the United States, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered Innovation Ventures, a holding company that owns Living Essentials, up to $375,000 in training grants based on the company's job creation plans. These tax credits are performance-based, meaning until Hoosiers are hired, the company is not eligible to claim incentives. The city of Wabash approved additional property tax abatement at the request of the Economic Development Group of Wabash County.