WindTamer, the maker of those distinctive-looking small-scale wind turbines, announced today that it's expanding in Rochester.
That's after New York State and local municipalities ponied up a $1.5 million incentives package.
And that's after WindTamer made it clear last summer that they were looking to expand into northeastern Pennsylvania by the start of 2011.
Here's a statement from WindTamer CEO William Schmitz, via Area Development Online (emphasis is ours):
"WindTamer has made the decision to prepare for demand for our wind turbines and renewable energy storage and management systems by first expanding our capabilities at our headquarters and manufacturing facility located in Rochester, New York."
We reported in September that it seemed as though WindTamer was playing the "incentives dating game."
It now looks as though they've won enough from New York to expand here in Rochester.
According to a WindTamer press release the expansion will create 91 jobs over the next five years. It was reported this summer that a new production facility in Pennsylvania would employ 400.
More to come.
Update: The announcement today is a bright spot in what has otherwise been a dismal stretch for WindTamer. Just last month, the company furloughed "several" production employees for up to 12 weeks. (Update: According to the Rochester Business Journal, the company trimmed its workforce from 16 to 12.) However, they weren't the only workers to be hit by the "cost-reduction measures." Some of the remaining production workers and all of the company's executives are being paid in stock instead of cash over the same three-month stretch.
WindTamer insists it'll get better soon. In the same December release, the company says they have $15 to $25 million in orders that'll be closed by the end of the first quarter.
That'd be big for the company. WindTamer's most recent SEC filings are chock full of losses (see: September 30, 2010 (10-Q)).
The value of the company's stock is up on the expansion news: up to around 20 cents a share.
