Monarch Litho Inc. was looking for a site with rail access when it began its location search for a new printing plant two years ago.
The company was considering sites in El Paso, Texas. But there were minimal amounts of properties in the metro that offered rail access, which forced the company to expand its search to nearby states.
The company, the largest minority-owned printer in the country and the No. 1 printer for the U.S. Government Printing Office, ultimately decided to build the facility in Santa Teresa, N.M., in the Las Cruces metro. A rail park in Santa Teresa was the deciding factor, according to the company.
In December, the company opened the $41 million, 225,000 square foot printing plant, where more than 100 workers will be employed during the next five years.
“We have a tremendous amount of paper shipped in and if we could find a location that had railroad access, we could really save some money on our freight costs,” said Eddie Audelo, controller for Monarch Litho. “It didn’t take much for us to decide that this was a great place to be.”
Monarch Litho executives were impressed with the pro-business environment they found in New Mexico, Audelo said. Company co-owner George Lopez even received a personal call from Gov. Bill Richardson.
“The state of New Mexico and Dona Ana County worked hard to put together an attractive [incentive] package,” Audelo said. “There was no way we could turn it down.”
The company is currently training 12 employees at its facility in Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua, Mexico, and expects to employ 35 people in Santa Teresa by the end of 2005.
The company had little trouble filling its first positions since around 100 people applied for the 12 slots. The state’s unemployment figure was at 5.2 percent in December, which translates into a wealth of job seekers for companies in need of people.
“We see Santa Teresa really growing and prospering,” Audelo said. “Affordable housing, good schools and officials who really care are the backbone of a healthy community. The community of Santa Teresa has shown these qualities.”
Monarch Litho is already looking to expand the New Mexico facility by adding commercial web-offset printing, Audelo said.
“The overall plan for the Santa Teresa facility is for it to house state-of-the-art commercial printing equipment along with fully electronic prepress equipment and our own in-house bindery services,” he said.
Aviation Industry Cluster Soars
Myriad companies in industries ranging from high tech to manufacturing have found that New Mexico offers a prime location for their businesses.
The state is renowned as a high-tech hot spot and is home to tenants such as the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, Los Alamos National Laboratory near Santa Fe and a variety of aviation/aerospace companies.
American Utilicraft Corp. is one of the newer high-tech companies in the state.
The Atlanta-based company said in October that it would build a cargo assembly plant at the Double Eagle II Aviation Park in Albuquerque.
Employment projections call for 400 workers at the plant during the next three years at an average salary of $30 an hour.
American Utilicraft is developing the FF-1080, which is designed to carry cargo in an unpressurized body.
Further boosting the state’s blossoming aerospace industry is Aero Mechanical Industries Inc., which announced in December its decision to locate an FAA-certified repair station and manufacturing facility in Rio Rancho.
Within three years, the newly leased 20,000 square foot facility will be home to about 150 employees.
Aero Mechanical is blending and merging the assets of two additional companies previously located in Arkansas and Arizona. Operations at the new Rio Rancho facility will focus on fixed-wing and helicopter repair/overhaul and parts manufacturing authority for the civilian and military markets.
A variety of factors led to the company’s decision to locate in New Mexico, not the least of which were incentives.
The state has certain incentives aggressively aimed at the aerospace industry.
New Mexico offers a job training program that reimburses classroom and on-the-job training costs, plus half of new hires’ wages for up to six months.
In addition, aerospace companies can benefit from a tax credit of 10 percent of the wages and benefits for each new job that pays a minimum of $40,000 annually, as well as certain exemptions from gross receipts (sales tax) if the company is involved in manufacturing, refurbishing or remodeling aircraft, or aerospace research and development.
“The state and local tax incentives and the Job Training Incentive Program are exceptional,” said Rodney Doss, president and CEO of Aero Mechanical. “They were instrumental in our decision to locate this facility and these jobs in New Mexico.”
He added that the state’s diverse economic base was another important factor in the company’s site location decision.
— Rachael Hedgcoth
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