Loading ...JRL Ventures, Inc./Marine Concepts, Cape Coral, Fla., announced it had the backing of state and county financial incentives to encourage its growth. The 34-year-old company has worked largely in the Marine industry, but is looking to gain more resources to strengthen its recent diversification into other industries.
The company applied for Florida’s QIT Tax Incentive, a qualified target industry tax refund. The plans call for 75 new jobs to be created over the next three years. “We went to them and said we would hire 25 new employees a year over a three-year period in a pay range of $41,000-plus,” said company president Matthew Chambers. “They came back and awarded us with an incentive program that’s performance-based. We have to hire the people in 2010, and in 2011 we would receive the first payment. In 2011, we’d hire 25 more people and then in 2012 we’d receive another payment and the same for the next year.”
The new employees would be involved in engineering and design aspects of robotic mills, laminating, and composite-based carpentry. The incentive package is estimated to be worth approximately $225,000. “The payments would come to us between 2011 and 2017,” said Chambers. “We’re not getting too much money up front, but it’s a return on our investment. We believe it’s a good program.”
“The money will allow us to invest in the new equipment and education programs that we need in the market segments we go into,” said Chambers. These markets include marine, aerospace simulators, architectural construction, theme parks and attractions, renewable energy and independent composite manufacturers. “When we started originally, we set a single target in the industry we were going after. We stopped and said let’s take a look at the composite industry world and see where there’s growth,” said Chambers.
Chambers expressed some unease about the lack of control over the economic climate. Nevertheless, he believes the worst conditions are behind him. “Business is starting to come back; we’re up from our lows we were in at one time and are doing well. We’re excited about the future and are still fighting and being aggressive,” he said.
