This year, Lake County celebrated a flurry of new businesses and expansions, and nowhere was this more pronounced than in advanced manufacturing. With Lake County’s incredible streak of industry growth over the past several years, 2021 was the punctuation mark on recent record-levels of new jobs and investment.
Since 2019, manufacturers have added 520 new jobs and directly invested $180 million in land, buildings and equipment. Manufacturing is a true powerhouse when it comes to job and revenue generation as it now contributes to more than 27% of Lake County’s gross domestic product and employs 1 in 7 workers. Lake County’s talent—which is diverse, highly-skilled and TWICE the national average for a similar sized region—is certainly contributing to this success. Employers are taking note.
Lake County Partners spent the year working directly with businesses, partners like the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and the College of Lake County, and public sector leaders to secure deals and land wins. From pizza to manufactured goods and the packages that they go into, you can find it all in Lake County. Here are a few of the advanced manufacturing highlights of 2021:
- AZ Polymers broke ground for a new facility in Gurnee, while Fischer Paper Products in Antioch, Belle Aire Creations in Round Lake Park and Mighty Hook in Waukegan cut ribbons to celebrate expansions.
- Fifty-year old, beloved pizza chain Lou Malnati’s consolidated its corporate offices, manufacturing and fulfillment in Buffalo Grove to respond to rapid growth.
- Amazon finished work on its third Waukegan facility, increasing the number of people working for the company in the city to 1,000 in more than 1.1 million square feet of space.
- Medline, one of the world’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of medical supplies, continued to expand its Lake County footprint with three facilities, two offices and a 1.4 million sq. ft. Grayslake distribution center that is the fifth largest in the world.
- Power transmission component manufacturer HM Manufacturing looked to add a new shift in Wauconda, with the company anticipating up to 26% growth by the end of the year.
- Medical device manufacturer Medical Murray completed state-of-the-art expansions at its facilities in North Barrington and Lake Zurich.
- The College of Lake County gathered community leaders together for a beam signing to commemorate advancement on its new Advanced Technology Center that will offer in-demand manufacturing training to fortify Lake County’s strong talent pipeline.
We want to add your company to the list of next year’s success stories. Contact us here to request our support and services, all of which are free thanks to the support of our investors.