Bradshaw Medical, a Kenosha-based manufacturer of orthopedic and spinal surgery instruments, plans to add 80 to 100 new employees during the next three years, economic development officials there said Thursday.
The company will likely be seeking a range of positions, including engineers and skilled manufacturing workers, said Todd Battle, president of the Kenosha Area Business Alliance economic development organization.
The Bradshaw expansion will be helped by a $250,000 loan from the business alliance through its High Impact Fund, Battle said.
That fund is designed to aid companies that are adding a significant number of jobs or making a significant investment in the community.
“This use fits spot on with this program,” Battle said. The High Impact Fund is part of about $29 million in revolving loan funds available for economic development projects, Battle said.
Bradshaw Medical’s operations are in the Business Park of Kenosha, in a manufacturing facility that opened in the fall of 2010. The company began in 2006 with four employees. Bradshaw expects to employ about 200 people once its expansion is complete.
Bradshaw is the first recipient of money from Kenosha County’s High Impact Fund.
“We were able to move pretty quickly and cement a deal,” Battle said.
Besides the new jobs, the company will develop an innovation center as part of the expansion, Bradshaw Medical President Keith Easter said in a statement issued by the business alliance.
“We will use the funds for additional personnel and equipment to help support our growth,” Easter said.
The High Impact Fund was initially funded with a $1 million investment from Kenosha County.
“The county committed to the establishment of the High Impact Fund to give our community another resource to support economic development and high quality job creation,” Kenosha County Executive Jim Kreuser said in the statement.
To qualify for the program, a project must result in creation of at least 50 new full-time equivalent positions or result in a capital investment of at least $3 million.
A recipient has up to three years to meet the job creation or capital investment requirement but must then maintain the jobs or capital investment in Kenosha County for a minimum of five years. If the recipient meets the project requirements, the loan can be forgiven.
Battle said there are a number of other projects that the alliance is working on.
“We’re starting to see an uptick in activity,” he said. “There’s a lot of prospect work going on where we have firms that are out looking.
“To me, it does seem like the business climate is continuing to improve,” he added
