Shiloh aims to add 35 jobs
By Mark Murdock | KPC News - The Star
The Auburn Common Council’s Tax Abatement Committee approved a tax phase-in request from Shiloh Industries of Auburn Tuesday.
A resolution to approve the phase-in with go before the full council at its next meeting April 4. A public hearing will be held on the matter at the following meeting April 17.
Abatement Committee members Kevin Webb and Mike Watson voted to move the request forward.
Shiloh is requesting a phase-in of the property tax on an estimated $2.95 million assessed value in equipment. The equipment has been ordered and some is already in place, according to plant manager Gerald Craycraft.
The equipment will help to create 35 new jobs with an average salary of $36,920, the committee heard.
Shiloh makes lightweight components and castings for automobiles.
“That’s what the auto industry wants, reduced weight and increased gas mileage,” said counsel for Shiloh, Steve Snyder of Snyder Morgan Federoff and Kuchmay LLP of Syracuse.
Shiloh took over Contech Castings at 1200 Power Drive in 2013. Shiloh received a tax abatement of $4.2 million for equipment to “bring it up to state of the art,” Snyder said. That abatement expires Dec. 31.
Snyder said $2.2 million worth of the equipment purchased for the new abatement has been installed, and the rest will be put in before the deadline at the end of the year.
Shiloh had said it would add 77 jobs at the time of its previous abatement. The company now has 78 on its workforce, Snyder said. Shiloh was found to be in compliance with the abatement last year.
“With changes in production plans, the number of employees anticipated when that abatement started simply didn’t materialize,” Snyder said. “Even though they had the new equipment, the bodies just weren’t needed.”
Watson asked if the 35 jobs anticipated this time were a certainty.
“The equipment that’s being put in place is specific to contracts that have been entered into,” Snyder said. “In order to produce what we need from that equipment, we need the 35 bodies. There’s not doubt moving forward, since we already have the contracts.
“The prior abatement was difficult to put together from the standpoint it was a startup. Contech wasn’t doing anything. (Shiloh) had to make some business planning decisions that just didn’t pan out the way we anticipated. This time the contracts are in place.”
Some of the new equipment would start production later this year, Craycraft added.
Shiloh’s corporate headquarters are in Valley City, Ohio. The company employees 3,000 people worldwide in the United States, Canada, southeast Asia and Europe.
