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Cherokee County is set to welcome a German robotics equipment supplier planning to upgrade its presence in Georgia.
Becker Robotics Equipment will invest $30 million to construct a headquarters and factory complex across three buildings in the city of Canton, moving from a small North American headquarters office in Norcross. The new facility will employ 137, marking a new era for a family-owned company with facilities in Georgia, Michigan and Mexico.
Based in the city of Dülmen, not far from Münster in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia, Becker supplies cable management systems and energy supply systems for robots, boosting their functionality. Some of Becker’s tools also deliver media like PVC and glue for sealing and joining applications, while others add guides for laser welding.
“The investment in Georgia builds on our previous success in the state and enables us to bring about a new phase of growth for our high-tech manufacturing operations, incorporated in a mixed-use, campus-style development with beautiful homes and astonishing recreational areas,” said Johan Broekhuijsen, who leads Becker’s Georgia operations.
According to its website, the company got its start as a supplier to Volkswagen Group at its factories in Wolfsburg, Germany, in 1993, growing from there with sales at other large automotive manufacturers and parts suppliers. While automotive makes up the bulk of its sales, Becker also serves robots working in the solar, wind energy, shipbuilding and cosmetics sectors.
The facility will be located at The Bluffs at Technology Park, a sylvan industrial park overlooking a reservoir at the Hickory Log Creek dam. Sitting just off Interstate 575, the park sits in a state-designated opportunity zone, where companies creating two or more jobs generate a jobs tax credit of $3,500 for up to five years. Solar arrays will be installed on the new factory to garner energy savings, as it has in other facilities around the world.
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