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| Thanks to the expansion of an Italian-based heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) company, Augusta County in Virginia will have 45 new jobs within the next year, nearly half of which will be available within the first quarter of 2015.Provides U.S. Inc. is making its first move across U.S. borders, and is a subsidiary of Provides Metalmeccanica Srl., a company that began in Italy in 1968 as a metallic office furniture manufacturer and eventually turned into a global leader in the heating and cooling industry.
Provides U.S. Inc. already manufactures evaporators and condensers for HVAC companies across the globe, but the move into 40,000-square-foot space in Verona, a town in Augusta County, VA, will be the company’s first expansion into the U.S. The expansion is expected to cost around $6.1 million, according to local news sources, and Provides intends to work with neighboring company Daikin Applied in Verona, which is an HVAC supply company that already receives products from Provides. The new location in Virginia, Provides states, is expected to make it easier for the company to work with clients, like Daikin Applied, throughout North and South America. According to Governor Terry McAuliffe and Augusta County Economic Development Director Amanda Glover, the expansion into Verona will create at least 45 new jobs in 2015. Within the first quarter of 2015, at least 20 job positions are expected to be up and running, giving nearly two dozen Virginians stable careers in an industry that already employs thousands of Americans at over 80,000 individual HVAC companies. The average annual salary of the 45 new jobs in Verona, Glover states, is expected to be around $45,000. This expansion into Verona is certainly a positive move, for both the Italian company and the county of Augusta, and it has come a mere two years after Daikin Applied moved into the town and created a state-of-the-art air conditioning test station — creating 50 jobs in the process — to the tune of $9.2 million. Manufacturing jobs, like the ones created by Daikin Applied and the ones that will be created by Provides, are the leading type of job in Augusta County. Overall, Glover states, both companies provide valuable assets to the local workforce, and have helped contribute to the county’s successful year; it’s expected that the region will end 2014 with nearly $70 million worth of investments, and almost 220 new jobs. |