News

Belgium-based health care products manufacturer Nateen announced this month its intentions of creating 50 jobs and investing $5.3 million in an 107,000 square foot facility in Northwest Jacksonville. The facility will become the company’s U.S. Headquarters and plant where it will manufacture and distribute paper-based adult incontinence products and baby sanitary care products, including diapers and wet wipes.

The company selected Jacksonville for the plant and headquarters due to JAXPORT’s strength and accessibility to handle inbound materials and outbound finished products and the region’s proximity to raw materials.

The city of Jacksonville awarded a $200,000 Northwest Jacksonville Economic Development Fund grant for machinery, equipment and other building improvements. This fund works to improve economic opportunity in the underinvested area of the city through grants or loans to businesses who seek to open, expand and redevelop there.

In the Jacksonville region, advanced manufacturing has seen significant growth over the last several years. Since January 2020, there have been 15 company announcements in the industry that were considered new-to-market or an expansion of existing facilities and head count. The announcements have involved companies such as Eagle LNG; Collins Aerospace; Made In Space, a Redwire Space company; Boeing; Fincantieri Marine Systems; and others which will generate nearly 1,100 jobs and nearly $861.5 million in private investment.

No doubt the region’s location is attractive to expansion given the confluence of Interstate, port, air and rail in what has been known as “America’s Logistics Center.” Jacksonville’s southeastern location, which sits at the Westernmost point on the East Coast, allows a same day reach of more than 98 million U.S. consumers.