International group investing $26M in Warren County facility, creating 100 jobs

Credit: SKIP PETERSON

Credit: SKIP PETERSON

Modula, an international group with an Italian headquarters that manufactures automated storage systems, has closed on the purchase of a large facility located in Warren County’s city of Franklin.

The project at 5000 Commerce Center Drive, which represents a $26.5 million in capital investment, will create 100 jobs for the company, according to REDI Cincinnati. The building previously housed print operations for Cox Media Group Ohio.

Modula said it decided to invest in southwest Ohio for its second U.S. presence to expand its manufacturing capacity and increase its access to customers across the country.

“Modula is facing an impressing growth worldwide with a pace of almost 25 percent year-over-year in the last five years, and particularly in the North American market we faced a further acceleration in the last two years,” said Antonio Pagano, Chief Executive Officer of Modula Inc.

“After an accurate analysis, we chose Ohio and particularly the Cincinnati area because of the excellent position, the great industrial presence and the high professionality of JobsOhio and REDI Cincinnati, who helped us in the whole process.”

Modula received a Job Creation Tax Credit from the State of Ohio totaling 1.52 percent with a duration of seven years. The project also received local support from the Warren County Port Authority.

Modula Chairman Franco Stefani said the company’s target is to progressively establish a production capacity of 2,000 Vertical Lift Modules per year in the building.

“The highly automated production process is in line with the high technological level of our VLM products, and the WMS software that goes with them,” Stefani said. “We are willing to invest in the rich, dynamic, and skilled human capital of this region, able to work in an Industry 4.0 advanced environment.”

The building was previously owned and occupied by Cox Media Group Ohio and served as the printing operation for all of its local newspapers, including the Journal-News, Dayton Daily News and Springfield News-Sun.

CMG Ohio closed the Franklin printing plant in 2017, after securing an agreement with Gannett Newspapers to print its three daily newspapers and its weekly publications in the company’s Indianapolis plant.

Monday’s sale to Immobiltec USA Inc. is listed at nearly $13.2 million.

After experiencing high growth in sold units, Modula initially decided to expand in the United States by separately establishing a new manufacturing operation and logistics hub.

After considering other locations, Modula found that the Commerce Center Drive building in Franklin met all of its needs for both manufacturing and logistics, which led to the company locating both operations in the building.

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