TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Jabil Plans To Keep Headquarters In St. Pete

Artist rendering provided by Jabil Circuit

Jabil Circuit Inc. will build its new headquarters, pictured here, in St. Petersburg.

ADVERTISEMENT

By RICHARD MULLINS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 12, 2008

Updated: 09/12/2008 11:21 am

ST. PETERSBURG - Jabil Circuit executives have decided to keep their headquarters facilities in St. Petersburg and expand into a soon-to-be-built facility on Gandy Boulevard.

The company plans to add 850 employees incrementally to staff its growing defense and aerospace electronics assembly business as well as consolidate employees who are in a variety of leased facilities.

In making the decision, the company agreed to accept millions of dollars in government incentives:

• Florida pledged direct tax incentives of $20 million.

• Pinellas County approved $2.9 million in incentives with a job-creation grant and training support.

• St. Petersburg committed tax-utility and job-creation incentives of $1.7 million.

• The state and city pledged $13 million for improvements to Gandy Boulevard and access to a new facility.

Jabil CEO Timothy Main said the company started thinking about where to put its headquarters last year and seriously considered sites in California and Michigan.

Last year, Main personally approached Gov. Charlie Crist and said the company would like to stay in Florida but had to consider other locations. He noted that compared with five years ago, most of Jabil's competitors have changed, and four of the top five are based outside the United States, most in Southeast Asia. For example the Apple iPhone is manufactured in part by Foxconn, a company that barely existed four years ago but has more than $40 billion in revenue.

Construction on Jabil's new facility on Gandy could start in the next 12 months, and new jobs would move in gradually over time, most in manufacturing with some other jobs in administration.

Jabil's defense and aerospace business is growing rapidly and recently turned profitable, Main said, as more military and aerospace clients outsource manufacturing.

Although the company announced plans to lay off 120 people Thursday, Main said its total U.S. workforce has grown from about 4,000 to 7,200. It employs 1,880 in St. Petersburg, which is up 28 percent since 2003.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT