Category: Manufacturing

Smith & Wesson has more than 1,200 employees. Monday, Smith & Wesson announced that it has already created 217 jobs and expects to hit 227 jobs by the end of February. The 160-year-old Springfield gunmaker has also invested more than $19 million in capital improvements at its sprawling Roosevelt Avenue plant through the end of December 2011.

InteliCoat Technologies has announced a manufacturing partnership that will cost about 20 jobs at its South Hadley plant. But InteliCoat said in a news release it expects to achieve growth of more than 10 percent in 2012, which will enable InteliCoat to create additional jobs in production, sales, marketing and distribution out of the South Hadley location.

Richter said Microtest has about 100 employees doing both manufacturing and contract laboratory work. The company plans to open another laboratory suite at its Agawam facility soon and that opening might result in more hiring.

Actor Adam Sandler has signed a deal with Sony and Hasbro, which manufactures the Candy Land board game at its East Longmeadow plant, to make a movie based on the colorful children’s board game that sends kids on a colorful quest to find the lost King Kandy, the Imperial Head Bonbon and Grand Jujube of Candy Land and his lost Castle.

The November BuyMass event was co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development and the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts.

The EDC wants to remind you to register for “New Market Opportunities for Photonics and Fiber Optics Companies”, the first in a series of seminars focused on growth opportunities in manufacturing sectors in western Massachusetts. The session will be held on Tuesday, February 7 from 4:00-6:30 at the Springfield Technology Park. More information can be found in the invitation -- http://www.westernmassedc.com/photonics2012/   The speakers have been confirmed. In addition to Keynote Speaker John Jay from Corning Optical Fiber (previously announced), the industry panelists will be Mike Toro from Schott, Pieter Schwarzenbach from Prima Electro, Flemming Tinker ...

Michael Graney, the senior vice president of business development at the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts in Springfield, said the "traditional, commodity-based heavy stuff" normally associated with New England manufacturing "is not going to make a lot of sense here" due to the high costs associated with labor, energy and doing business in this region. But Graney believes that small, well-run manufacturers who make products for a specific or "niche" markets, such as Pittsfield Plastics & Engineering, can succeed.

Eastman Chemical is buying Solutia Inc., chemicals provider for products from iPads to tires, for about $3.4 billion in cash and stock in a bid to drive its sluggish growth and focus on emerging markets, particularly the Asia-Pacific region.

“If you promised me that 20 years from now we'd only have the same number of people working in manufacturing as we did today I would take your offer in a second,” Bialecki said.

Coburn stated, “This new investment partnership with NEP marks an exciting time for Savage. On behalf of our management team and employees, we look forward to working with the NEP team, exploring new business opportunities and advancing our business potential together.” Savage is headquartered in Westfield, Massachusetts, and has over 600 dedicated employees. Manufacturing facilities are located in Westfield; Lakefield, Ontario; and Eugene, Oregon.

A manufacturing company in West Springfield laid off 76 employees on Wednesday.

The state’s finance and development agency provided $758,460 to Pro Pel Plastech, a South Deerfield, Mass. manufacturer of recycled plastic pellets from industrial plastic waste and consumer materials.

Blu Homes, a modular home company that touted Western Massachusetts as the perfect place to manufacture its homes, has closed its East Longmeadow factory and moved production to Vallejo, Calif.

  The EDC will host “New Market Opportunities for Photonics and Fiber Optics Companies” on Tuesday, February 7, 2012, at 4:00 at the Springfield Technology Park. This will be the first in a series of presentations to be scheduled over the next several months focused on opportunities for manufacturing clusters we have identified as having growth potential for the region. Here is a link to the invitation, including RSVP information -- http://www.westernmassedc.com/photonics2012/ The series was spawned by the “Economic Development and Business Attraction Planning” report completed by CWS Consulting Group -- http://www.westernmassedc.com/cwsreport/ -- with the ...

The $29.4 billion overall F-15 deal is part of a $60 billion sale to the Saudis tentatively announced in late 2010, which includes the purchase of Stratford-based Sikorsky Aircraft’s Black Hawk and Boeing’s Apache helicopters.