Mettler Toledo celebrated the grand opening of its 270,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Northpointe Village, with tours, refreshments and a ribbon cutting.
The Swiss-based company is a global supplier of precision scales and services used in research, and the packaging and production of food and pharmaceuticals.
Mettler Toledo announced plans in 2017 to relocate its Town ‘n Country facility, and also to close its plant in Ithaca, New York. About 600 employees now work at the new plant at the Northpointe shopping center, off State Road 54 at Suncoast Parkway.
Nearly 170 people were hired in the past year, with most coming from Pasco County.
“We have a global leader now located in our county,” said Pasco County Commissioner Kathryn Starkey. “It’s an amazing company. Opportunities like this one bring even more enthusiasm to our region.”
The facility will be home to four business units.
Currently onsite are Tampa-based Safeline Metal Detection and X-Ray Inspection, and Eagle Product Inspection.
During the summer, they will be joined by Mettler Toledo’s Hi-Speed Checkweighing, which currently is in Ithaca; and, Vision Inspection, currently in Aurora, Illinois.
The units offer a range of services, including the design and manufacture of systems that check for contaminants, provide quality control for products and packaging, and test for safety of foods and pharmaceuticals.
During tours of the plant, visitors walked through the sales and services departments, plant operations area, training room, and quality control area.
The campus also has an on-site fitness room, a recreation room with ping pong and foosball, a courtyard and the “Northpointe Café.”
In quality control, visitors got a demonstration of Mettler Toledo’s testing equipment.
The one on display is capable of checking 300 boxes of chocolates in 1 minute for contaminants, and missing pieces of candy.
In her remarks, Starkey singled out Mettler Toledo’s commitment to apprenticeship programs for manufacturing jobs. Because of its on-site cafes, the company also started a culinary program at its Switzerland headquarters that will be adopted in Pasco.
Four students in Pasco’s AmSkills program — Melissa Fink, Alex Gerwe, Nikki Daniels and Josh Ortiz — attended the Mettler Toledo’s opening.
AmSkills is a Tampa Bay initiative that helps high school students, adults and veterans seeking manufacturing jobs. The program operates in Pasco, Pinellas and Hernando counties.
AmSkills instructor Dan Albright said he was able to place some of his students at Mettler Toledo.
Daniels, 36, was impressed with her tour. She is in the adult program at AmSkills.
“I’m very interested and excited that (Mettler Toledo) is close to this area,” she said. “It’s what we’re looking for.”
Ortiz, 19, also is in the adult program, which will last 17 weeks. “I want to be able to find a job,” he said. “Something I can go into, and be proud of and have a career.”
Published April 11, 2018
