City officials will consider a request from Schaeffler Joplin for more than $56 million in tax breaks to fund a plant expansion.

Dennis Miller, plant manager, asked the City Council on Monday night to consider the request, providing an outline of the company's proposal along with information about the company and the Joplin plant.



Rob O'Brian, development consultant for the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce, introduced him.



Schaeffler is a German-based bearings company that Miller described as "a major corporation within the world." The company was started in 1905 as FAG and the plant formerly carried that name. It has had a Joplin plant for 48 years. Joplin is one of seven Schaeffler plants in Missouri.



Miller said the company now has 73 plants and 18 research and development centers in 50 countries. The bulk of the products that are made in Joplin, 85 percent, are ball bearings and spherical roller bearings. The plant also makes cylindrical roller bearings. Its products are made for industrial and automotive use.



The need to increase capacity has come about since a sales expansion began in 2017.



"In 2017, our sales organization started to identify some significant opportunities within the Americas, and those opportunities brought with it some increases in our head count," Miller said. "In 2017, the plant started with 252 employees and then grew to 288 as result of the increase of sales." The company expects to see a rise in employment through 2023, he said.



"What we are planning to do is increase our capacity, add new equipment, improve our processes and, along with this, there is a an educational grant, training grant to help us elevate the skill level of our employees," Miller said.



He said the $56 million expense would involve $40 million in personal property tax breaks for equipment and $16 million for nonmanufacturing construction as well as some sales tax exemption on nonmanufacturing equipment and local tax exemption on utility use.



That would allow the company to compete both in the Americas and internationally, Miller said.



"We will invest $56 million in capital, retain 288 jobs and create 39 new jobs, invest in new equipment and employee skills, and that will then allow us to bring in even more new business."



Councilman Ryan Stanley said that in an email to council members in July, the expected employment increase was said to be 59 jobs. He asked if the company is still defining the number of new jobs to be produced by the expansion.



Miller said that when the new sales were identified in June 2017, the plant started hiring then. That is when the company also started planning for new equipment. "A lot of the head count has been brought in and trained on the old equipment, and we will send people to Europe to get trained on the new equipment," Miller said.



Mayor Gary Shaw asked O'Brian what is needed from the city. O'Brian said he thought that asking the city attorney to draw up the paperwork would be the next step.



City Attorney Peter Edwards said he was looking for a vote on whether the council wished to proceed.



Councilman Phil Stinnett moved to ask the city attorney to put together the needed paperwork for the council to consider.



The vote on that motion was eight in favor. One councilman, Taylor Brown, was absent.



Town tenure



During the presentation, Dennis Miller, plant manager, said the plant has been in Joplin for 48 years. Council member Diane Reid Adams said her father was serving on the council when the FAG Bearings Corp. plant was established in Joplin. She commended the company for maintaining its Joplin plant for so long.