Libbey Glass has announced an expansion project that is expected to bring new jobs to the area.
The company announced Tuesday that it will invest $20 million in Libbey's Shreveport manufacturing site, including the addition of a new research and development component to its operations.
It's expected to create 70 new direct jobs with average pay of more than $38,000 per year, plus benefits.
It's also expected to add 75 new indirect jobs. Libbey says they will also retain 511 existing jobs in Shreveport.
The news comes just 5 months after more than 100 employees were laid off at the plant, when the company decided to remove and send equipment to a different factory in Mexico.
At the time, the company said it had to reduce its workforce due to changing market demand and foreign competition in the consumer glass tableware sector.
Those layoffs came less than a year after Libbey spent $9 million modernizing the Shreveport site with a renovation of the existing glassmaking furnace.
Over the next two years, Libbey says they will install new state-of-the-art equipment investing in proprietary glassmaking technology to keep the company and the Shreveport facility at the forefront of the glassware industry. Based in Toledo, Ohio, Libbey selected the Shreveport site for additional investment over other U.S. and international sites.
Local leaders and state economic development officials say they worked to secure Libbey's latest investment by offering a new incentive package that includes a $500,000 Modernization Tax Credit to be claimed over five years after the investment is made. The company also is expected to utilize the state's Quality Jobs and Industrial Tax Exemption programs. In addition, Libbey may claim Louisiana's refundable Research and Development Tax Credit on qualified R&D expenditures. For businesses with 100 or more employees, that incentive provides an 8 percent refundable tax credit.
