Union Tank Car Company

Union Tank Car Company (UTC), a manufacturer and lesser of railroad tank cars, announced the location of its second US plant in near Alexandria, La., at a groundbreaking ceremony in November 2004. The company anticipates producing 3,500 rail cars annually at the facility starting in early 2006. Approximately 850 will be employed from the surrounding region.

Bob Zwartz, director of taxes for UTC, recently spoke about the site selection process at Cleco Power's Economic Development Summit in Kinder. The company started the process looking at 11 states in the southeast, and then narrowed to Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. The company has an existing production facility in Texas and a leasing facility in Ville Platte, La.

Zwartz explained that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco went after the project with full force. "It was Governor Blanco?s determination and incentive offer that helped me to convince top management that Louisiana was the place to be," he said. "And without Cleco this deal would not have happened."

Cleco Power played a major role in helping land the $100 million UTC project for central Louisiana. Along with numerous government and civic groups, the utility?s retail sales and marketing team was an essential player in bringing the plant to land adjacent to the England Airpark.

"We were all taking direction from the governor's office, and it was a complete team effort," said Mike Sibley, Cleco economic development director, referring to the Chamber, the City of Alexandria, England Airpark and Cleco partnership. Cleco also purchased the 240-acre site, 121 acres which will be used by UTC and the remaining land will go to England Airpark for development.

Procter & Gamble
Two key factors influenced Procter & Gamble's decision to add manufacturing capacity for heavy duty liquid laundry detergents at its existing dry laundry and chemicals facility in Pineville, Louisiana.

Work force and location

"Our Pineville plant has been in operation for almost 35 years. We've come to value the quality of the work force in Louisiana," said Todd Hoffman, plant manager of the Pineville facility."It's no surprise to us that the Census Bureau recently ranked Louisiana's manufacturing workers number one in the country."

"Reliable power is important to Plastipak because of the process they use," said Mike Sibley, an economic and business development director with Cleco. "Our engineers worked hard to ensure we could meet that need while we worked on things like securing property and a state grant for a rail spur."

William C. Young, president of Plastipak, said the efforts were critical to his company's decision to site the facility in Pineville. "We are grateful for the valuable assistance received from the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, the England Authority, Cleco and the many employees of Procter & Gamble, along with many others," Young said.