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CABOT CORP TO INVEST $10M. INTO MASSACHUSETTS PLANT
HAVERHILL — City officials say it will mean more jobs for Haverhill.Boston-based Cabot Corp. is investing $10 million in its Ward Hill Business Park plant, which manufactures Cabot’s CAB-O-JET line of pigmented colorants for the inkjet printing market.
Mayor James Fiorentini, who toured the facility yesterday, said Cabot plans to double production capacity for two of its manufacturing lines, which will result in the creation of as many as 15 new jobs.
"In the middle of a recession, for this business to be doing a $10 million expansion is big news for our city," Fiorentini said. "Jobs are Haverhill’s number-one need."
In a press release, Cabot Vice President Fred von Gottberg said the investment is a response to rapid growth within the inkjet printing market, including in offices, where he said inkjet printers are now competing more with laser printers by providing full-color printing at low cost and with lower energy use.
"With an increased demand for color printing, personalized content and short runs, we believe that inkjet printing has become the best, most cost-effective solution," he said.
Fiorentini said Cabot expects to eventually outgrow its Ward Hill building and when it does, the city will do what it can to help ensure Cabot continues to operate here.
"We told them we will speed permitting for you, that we will guarantee you permits within 90 days and have everything under one department under Bill Pillsbury," Fiorentini said about the role the city’s planning and economic development director will play in permitting.
Jim Makuc, acting plant manager at Cabot’s Ward Hill plant, said the company employs about 3,900 people worldwide.
He said the Haverhill plant has about 80 employees, including 20 engineering and management people and about 60 production, maintenance and laboratory staff.
Makuc said the first phase of the expansion, to be completed this November, will expand one production line.
Phase two will be complete next April and will expand a second production line, he said. The Ward Hill plant has five production lines and works three shifts, he said.
In 2008, Haverhill High School’s science department received a $17,500 grant from the Cabot Corporation Foundation to purchase equipment with new technology, including 36 hand-held LabQuest data collection devices as well as several laptop computers, several projection devices and carts for moving and storing the new equipment.
Last year, Tilton Elementary School was awarded a $10,000 Cabot Foundation grant to buy classroom science materials, including kits for conducting classroom experiments in electricity.
Boston-based Cabot Corp. is a global specialty chemical and performance materials company. Cabot’s major products are carbon black, fumed silica, inkjet colorants, aerogel, and cesium formate drilling fluids. Cabot began manufacturing in Haverhill in 2002.
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