Area Development
Karbec, a company that specializes in automated machinery for manufacturers, will invest $1 million to establish its plant in Hodgenville, Kentucky. The company plans to create 48 jobs.

The new businesses will design, build and install automated machinery for manufacturers in the region. Karbec, a partnership between lifelong Kentucky residents Troy Fackler and Trinity Searcy and Ontario-based Dan Bekcic, will predominantly serve the automotive industry, but will be expanding to other sectors as well.

According to Karbec officials, most of its competitors are located in Canada and the Detroit area, but the increasing number of automotive manufacturers in Kentucky makes the Commonwealth a great fit.

“We are very excited to be adding value to our Kentucky-based customers and the community,” said Trinity Searcy, Partner at Karbec. “We feel that local manufacturing plants will benefit from having a near-by company that can provide design, manufacturing and integration of automated solutions or improvements for their everyday issues or product changes. Typically, this type of support comes from several hours away. By being local, we hope to improve the communication, lead time, and cost of these services to the local manufacturers. We already have customers requesting help and are looking to add employees in the PLC and robotics field. The sooner that we can fill these positions, the sooner we can start having a positive impact on the local community and to our customers.”

“Kentucky’s location and strong manufacturing sector continues to attract businesses,” said Governor Steve Beshear. “I am pleased to welcome Karbec to Kentucky and eagerly anticipate the strength it will bring to the Hodgenville community and the Commonwealth.”

To encourage the investment and job growth in the community, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority preliminarily approved the company for tax incentives up to $500,000 through the Kentucky Business Investment program. The performance-based incentive allows a company to keep a portion of its investment over the term of the agreement through corporate income tax credits and wage assessments by meeting job and investment targets.

In addition, Karbec is eligible to receive resources from the Kentucky Skills Network. Through the Kentucky Skills Network, companies are eligible to receive no cost recruitment and job placement services, reduced cost customized training and job training incentives. Last year, the Kentucky Skills Network trained more than 84,000 employees from more than 4,100 Kentucky companies.