City’s Business Retention & Expansion Program Helps Create 500 New Jobs on the East Side

KLN Steel Products has unveiled plans to consolidate its nationwide operations in San Antonio and add 500 new jobs to their local workforce. The company, which manufactures high quality institutional furniture, currently employs 200 people at their present location in San Antonio at 2 Winnco Drive and is making plans to secure additional facilities to meet production and workforce demands for their expanded operations.

San Antonio competed successfully for the consolidation project against other KLN sites in California, Illinois and Vermont. KLN CEO Edward Herman gave these reasons for selecting San Antonio, “KLN Steel Products has explored a variety of options in regards to our relocation and growth. After many months of deliberation, KLN Steel Products has come to the conclusion that San Antonio is the city that best fits our needs. Geographically, Labor Pool, Vendor Supply Chain, and, finally, a city interested in helping American Manufacturing.”

Mayor Phil Hardberger offered the following comment upon the announcement, “This great project is a direct result of the City’s proactive effort to promote business retention and expansion within our local companies. By working closely with our partners at the State, Bexar County and CPS Energy we are not only retaining 200 jobs, but adding another 500 good paying jobs in the targeted manufacturing industry."

City Manager Sheryl Sculley credits the City’s new Business Retention and Expansion program for uncovering this opportunity to keep KLN in San Antonio and help them expand. She commented that, “landing this expansion project was a team effort led by the hard work of the City’s Economic Development Department. Without our BRE program and our partnership with CPS Energy and Bexar County Economic Development, we might not have discovered that KLN was thinking about leaving San Antonio.”

On June 12 the City Council approved an incentive package including a 10-year tax abatement as well as a $400,000 grant to help KLN train their new employees. Governor Perry, through the Governor’s Division of Economic Development and Tourism, has committed to a $900,000 Texas Enterprise Fund allocation to help KLN grow in Texas.

The Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) program, which began in 2007, is a City Economic Development initiative aimed at helping local companies grow and prosper here in our community. This proactive program is designed to establish an open line of communication between the local business community and the City of San Antonio in order to foster the creation of new jobs and increased investment from companies that make a home in our City.

For more information on this City initiative, please contact Industry Development Manager Omar Garcia at 207-6315.