Deere, a manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, is investing more than $30 million to expand its production facility in Thibodeaux, west of New Orleans. Where it now produces sugar picking equipment and earthmoving machinery, it also manufactures a number of other products.
Deere has plans to expand production in the next two years and increase capacity at the Thibodaux plant to start producing cotton pickers with medium chassis, which are currently under construction in China at the John Deere plant.
John Deere has received government support and a $1 million grant to create new jobs. Thereby increasing the number of jobs by 70 to 350. The Louisiana State Legislature also said the project will bring an additional 110 indirect jobs to the state.
“The new cotton harvesters offer John Deere Thibodaux a huge opportunity to provide innovative and technologically advanced solutions to our customers,”
said Mike Duplantis, Thibodaux plant manager.
“This expansion is made possible by the tremendous hard work and resilience of the Thibodaux team.
Mike Duplantis added
This investment will add to a massive wave of re-shoring projects that are expanding the production base in all parts of the United States, as well as areas of Mexico and Canada. A spring survey of more than 1,600 executives at global conglomerate ABB revealed that 70% of companies plan to invest in new production facilities close to home. Reshoring Initiative reported that investment rose 46% last year to a record high, and predicts that this mark will be beaten in 2022.
Along with Deere, Schneider is also investing in reshoring, which will invest a total of more than $45 million in its reshoring projects at its circuit breaker and other electrical products plants in Lexington, Kentucky, and Lincoln, Nebraska. The investment will include new equipment and machinery that will be more automated and technologically connected than today’s 65- and 50-year-old plants, respectively.
