Area Development
Living Essentials, the maker of 5-hour ENERGY, plans a $25.5 million, 1-million square feet, expansion to its Wabash, Indiana production facility, with estimates of creating 200 jobs at the 46-acre Wabash Business Complex.

Four new production lines will be added at the site, where Living Essentials is already producing nine million bottles of 5-Hour ENERGY per week. Living Essentials, which employs 370 Hoosiers, will begin hiring new engineering, manufacturing and administrative associates.

"Once again Wabash gets an energy boost from Living Essentials, an innovative company that began with a two-ounce idea and has since grown into a global success story in a very short time," said Gov. Mitch Daniels. "This company is proof of the strength of Indiana's business climate and workforce and we are proud to see them surpass every goal they set."

"Living Essentials is glad to once again announce we are expanding in the Wabash community," said Karl Smith, general manager of Living Essentials. "We are fortunate to be able to locate in a community with people that share our strong work ethic and high regard for safety and quality. Being located in the Wabash area is also beneficial by providing a good location for our distribution channels."

As an incentive the Indiana Economic Development Corporation provided Innovation Ventures, LLC, a holding company that owns Living Essentials, up to $375,000 in training grants based on the company's job creation plans.

These tax credits are performance-based, and will not kick in until the company fulfills its job creation commitments. In addition the city of Wabash approved additional property tax abatement at the request of the Economic Development Group of Wabash County.