Cooper Tire & Rubber Company will retain its facility in Tupelo, Mississippi, after legislative approval and the governor’s signing of a $19 million incentives package put together by state officials to keep the company. The Mississippi governor’s office says that as part of the incentives agreement, Cooper will add between 50 and 150 new jobs and retain 1,200 existing positions at that facility. Last year, the Ohio-headquartered company had announced that it would close one of four U.S. plants. Cooper will receive a $7 million grant to construct an additional building at the location, with completion expected in early 2010; the company will also receive a $6 million no-interest loan to move equipment to the Mississippi facility from the plant Cooper chose to close in Georgia, as well as $6 million in tax breaks over a 10-year period. The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports that local incentives offered to Cooper bring the total package to more than $30 million.
