Auto parts supplier to add 250 jobs in Heber Springs

Add Heber Springs to the recent and pleasantly surprising trend of new job announcements in Arkansas.

Gov. Mike Beebe was in the north central Arkansas town Friday to help announce that Saint Jean Industries would add 250 jobs and invest $14 million in a manufacturing plant there. Saint Jean purchased the former Superior auto parts plant in 2006.

Before the expansion of new business, Saint Jean employed 180 people. This expansion will bring total employment to more than 430 people, according to a statement from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

Belleville, France-based Saint Jean manufactures aluminum parts for the automotive industry at its Heber Springs facility. The expansion, according to the AEDC statement, is a result of several significant orders placed with the company. These orders came from companies such as ZF, a large German supplier to the automotive industry, which placed orders for General Motors and Ford.

Gov. Mike Beebe met with Saint Jean’s leadership team on his recent European business and trade trip.

“This expansion is happening in Heber Springs because of the work ethic and spirit of the Heber Springs workforce,” Beebe said in the statement. “While Arkansas always works to make our State an attractive place to locate or expand a business, it is the local employees who determine the success of our economic-development endeavors.”

Since the first of the year, new job announcements have been made in Osceola (9 new jobs and 19 existing jobs saved for barge production) and Strand Composite announced it will open a facility in Harrison that should employ up to 75.

Closer to home, Houston-based Oxane Materials announced Dec. 28 its plans to locate a manufacturing facility in Van Buren that will initially hire 50 in 2010 and potentially up to 300 by 2014. Mitsubishi Power Systems announced in October in would build a wind turbine manufacturing and assembly plant in Fort Smith, possibly employing up to 400 jobs by 2012.