SGB USA To Open First U.S. Factory In Colorado

SGB USA Inc. (Wheat Ridge, CO), an arm of German transformer manufacturer Starkstrom-Beratebau GmbH (Regensburg, Germany), recently said it will set up the company?s first U.S. manufacturing plant near Denver.

The company builds transformers that convert electricity generated by wind turbines into a form that can be delivered onto the power grid. In Europe, the company supplies all the major wind turbine manufacturers, a list that includes Danish company Vestas and U.S. turbine manufacturer GE, according to Kerwin Stretch, general manager for the company?s Wheat Ridge manufacturing plant.

Vestas has a wind blade manufacturing plant in Windsor, north of Denver, and is building additional manufacturing plants along the Front Range. SGB expects to hire up to ten people and invest about $1.4 million in the plant in Wheat Ridge in the 44th Industrial Park near the junction of Colorado 58 and Interstate 70, according to Stretch and the city?s announcement.

The plant will assemble components and test the transformers before they are shipped to customers, Stretch said. ?This plant is intended to just be a gateway,? Stretch said. ?We have some big plans over the next few years. The first part of my job is to get this up and running.? Stetch said the plans include adding additional capacity to SGB?s U.S. manufacturing operations and that he?s ?90 percent sure it will be in the Denver area.?

SGB expects to start shipping units in the first quarter of 2010. Wheat Ridge worked with the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. and the Jefferson Economic Council to land SGB. The city offered $15,000 in tax incentives to SGB, a figure that could go higher if the company raises its investment and hires more people, said Ryan Stachelski, an economic development specialist with Wheat Ridge.

SGB also has applied for $15,000 in incentives from Jefferson County, Stachelski said.