The groundbreaking is expected in April with the plant in operation by late 2013, the company announced.
The project still depends on state and local approval of incentives to Abbott, which officials at both levels of government repeatedly declined to discuss Thursday. Abbott also revealed little about what led it to Tipp City.
But Gov. John Kasich said his administration made the case for Abbott expanding its presence in Ohio at a time when the company was looking elsewhere.
“They were really on the verge of going to Indiana,” Kasich said in a phone interview Thursday. “I asked the CEO of the company (Miles White) if we could make a presentation (and) give us a chance to put our best foot forward. He said we could.”
Abbott spokesman Pete Paradossi said the company needed highway access and a site that was “shovel-ready.”
“We build our nutritional plants close to our customers for obvious reasons. It will be a significant plant within our global manufacturing network,” Paradossi said.
A variety of protein and nutritional drinks are offered under the Ensure name. Glucerna helps with the management of diabetes, Paradossi said.
Publicly traded Abbott has its nutritional group based in Columbus. The headquarters is based in the Chicago area and has about 2,500 Ohio workers and about 91,000 employees total, Paradossi said.
Paradossi said it was too soon to discuss a jobs application process for those interested in working at the new plant. He did not have an exact date for the planned groundbreaking, but he said it would be next month.
Liz Sonnanstine, executive director of the Tipp City Chamber of Commerce, said the plant will be built on County Road 25A south of the Meijer distribution facility.
The chamber was not involved in talks with Abbott, Sonnanstine said.
Jon Crusey, city manager of Tipp City, said there are proposed local incentives that helped draw Abbott to the city, but he declined to talk about them. He said the proposed incentives will be considered at a Tipp City Council meeting March 19.
“It was a combination of the local incentives and state incentives,” Crusey said.
He called the announcement a “once-in-a-decade” opportunity.
Neither Kasich nor his spokespeople would discuss state incentives, but Kasich said they were instrumental in drawing Abbott. He said Abbott’s leaders were concerned about work force training and location, and Kasich said he assured the company he would be a “good partner.”
“The project is contingent upon approval of state incentives,” said Connie Wehrkamp, Kasich’s deputy press secretary. “We expect Abbott to appear before the (Ohio) Tax Credit Authority on March 26, and we’ll have more to say about incentives offered at that time.”
Miami County Commissioner Jack Evans said most of Abbott’s dealings were with Tipp City, the governor’s office and U.S. House Speaker John Boehner.
The plant will be located in Boehner’s congressional district.
Boehner wasn’t available to comment, but his office staff said the speaker tried to convince Abbott to invest in Ohio through conversations that took place in recent months.
WHIO-TV reporter Mark Bruce contributed to this report.
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