Lynchburg, Virginia – November 5, 2013 – Simplimatic Automation – a leading provider of conveyors and automation for the semiconductor, electronics, packaging, assembly, pharmaceutical and automotive industries – announces its plans to build a 60,000-square-foot automation manufacturing facility in Bedford County, Virginia. The new center will be built on roughly 12 acres in the county’s 500-acre business park in the New London Business and Technology Center, located at U.S. Route 460 and Meade Road in Forest.
The company is consolidating its operations with this move to Bedford County, merging its existing sites and enterprises in both the greater Lynchburg area and in Sarasota, Florida. Simplimatic will ultimately invest more than $4 million in the project, which includes relocating up to 50 current employees to the new facility. “We’re very excited about breaking ground on this expansive facility,” said Tom DiNardo, Simplimatic President & CEO. “We ship our products all over North America, Asia and Europe. By merging our existing sites to one all-inclusive operations center, we can effectively streamline our processes and provide an even higher level of service and quality to our customers.”
Simplimatic Automation was formed in 2000 to acquire one of the operating divisions of its parent company, Crown Simplimatic. Since then, Simplimatic has also acquired Indiana-based Advantage Puck Technologies, which is now in Corry, Pennsylvania, and Florida-based MultiFlex Systems, which will be relocated from Sarasota to the Bedford site.
The Bedford County Economic Development Authority assisted Simplimatic with its land purchase agreement and its approval as a Tech Zone company. The agreements between the EDA and Simplimatic are tied to job growth and tax revenue targets, which the company has agreed to meet over the next several years.