Eastern Indiana Update: the region's top business stories.

• Author: Mayer, Kathy

Industrial parks fill.

The Indiana Gateway Industrial Park at Interstate 70 and State Road 1, near Cambridge City in Wayne County, welcomes its first tenant this year. Taconic Farms Inc. is investing $18.8 million in a facility that will begin operations in July with 45 new hires. The company will add another 50 jobs in its second phase, says Renee Doty, manager of community development for the Economic Development Corp. of Wayne County.

Headquartered in New York, Taconic Farms is the world's largest lab rodent supplier, providing rats, mice and lab services to biomedical researchers.

In nearby Richmond's Midwest Industrial Park, industrial brush maker Osborn International has completed construction on its $10.5 million facility and moved over from Ohio, bringing 108 new jobs to the county.

Also in Richmond, Howa USA Inc. has opened its $5.2 million sunshade trim board plant in Richmond's Foreign Auto Parts Incubator. About 50 will soon be on the job, supplying the automotive industry with the components for sunroof systems.

These are all new investments and new jobs for our county," Doty says.

More jobs. Both Rush and Henry counties are reporting employment increases.

Copeland Corp.'s $14 million expansion brought 86 new jobs to Rushville when the company closed its North Carolina plant. It now employs 223, says Mark Sloan, business specialist at the Rush County Economic and Community Development Corp. An Emerson Climate Technologies company, Copeland makes compressors for coiling and refrigeration equipment.

Also in Rushville, INTAT Precision Inc. is finishing a $14 million expansion of its disc brake pad plant in the North Industrial Park. The company has 330 on the job, up a few from last year.

"I think we're making a lot of progress at this point," Sloan says.

In Henry County Brian Coats, executive director of the New Castle/Henry County Chamber of Commerce, reports Metaldyne Corp., now full owner of the former DaimlerChrysler operations in New Castle, is "still one of our hot companies and doing great, way above expectations." Employment is about 970 at the auto-parts company, which makes, among other products, front spindle assemblies for Ford.

Also, the county welcomed New, Castle E-Coating, employing about 30 with hopes to boost that to 100 in a couple of years. "They bought a vacant facility and renovated it," Coats says. The business charges metal with an electronic coating, an improved process over dipping forging in paint, he...