Home » Interstate Lane Business Briefs — October 2013

Interstate Lane Business Briefs — October 2013

By Karen Baird

INDIANA

♦ Knowledge Services, a professional services and information technology consulting firm, has announced plans to expand its Indianapolis headquarters and add up to 400 new jobs by 2018. The company provides services to help businesses and government bodies manage contingent labor, including cost tracking and 1099 services. The expansion will be the company’s second in two years: In 2011, the company announced plans for a $1.9 million expansion that would add 200 jobs by 2015, and has already exceeded that figure.

Interstate_GE♦ GE Appliances is eliminating nearly a third of its workforce in Bloomington, Ind., by the end of October, citing a decreased demand for the side-by-side refrigerators the plant produces. According to The (Bloomington) Herald-Times, the cuts will reduce the Bloomington staff from 522 to approximately 364.

♦ American Specialty Health Inc. is moving the company’s headquarters from San Diego to Carmel, Ind., creating up to 675 new jobs by 2016. Launched in California more than 25 years ago, ASH provides specialty healthcare management and fitness/exercise programs for health plans, insurance carriers and employer groups. The company said that in addition to providing a central location for its headquarters, Indiana provided a strong business climate with lower costs, as well as a high quality of life for its employees.

OHIO

♦ Crain’s Cleveland Business reports that Bank of America is laying off more than 1,000 Ohio employees who work in home loan fulfillment and consumer banking services. The bank said the decision to close two Cleveland-area locations and another in Cincinnati was tied to the recent decline in mortgage refinancing.

TENNESSEE

Interstate_Alcoa♦ Alcoa has broken ground on a $275 million expansion of its Alcoa, Tenn., plant that will help meet the growing aluminum demand by auto producers. According to figures released by Alcoa, orders for aluminum – which is already the No. 2 material used to build cars – are expected to nearly double by 2025. The expansion will create 200 full-time jobs.

♦ Global banking giant UBS is investing $36.5 million to establish a shared services center in Nashville that will create 1,000 new jobs over the next five years. The business solutions center in Nashville is part of the Switzerland-based company’s plan to create regional hubs around the world to support its wealth management, investment banking and asset management businesses.

WEST VIRGINIA

Interstate_ToyotaLogo♦ Toyota Motor Manufacturing of West Virginia is investing $90 million to expand its plant in Buffalo, W.Va. The expansion will increase assembly and machining of Toyota’s six-speed automatic transmission by 20,000 per month by early 2015. Toyota currently employs a workforce of 1,300 at the Buffalo plant and plans to add another 80 jobs to support the expansion.

♦ Patriot Coal Corp. plans to idle its Logan County complex near Man, W.Va., in an effort to align its production with expected sales. The decision will affect approximately 250 workers. The company said about 50 of those workers will likely be offered jobs at other Patriot locations.