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CLARCOR Inc. To Establish State Of The Art Innovation Center In Columbia, Tennessee

06/19/2014
CLARCOR Inc. plans to acquire a 62,250 square foot facility to create a state-of-the-art global research and product development campus in Columbia, Tennessee, to be known as the CLARCOR Innovation Center.

A global provider of filtration products, systems and services, the firm will invest in excess of $10 million and create 35 new jobs across its two Middle Tennessee locations over the next five years. CLARCOR will immediately begin renovation of a two-story commercial building at 2203 Oakland Parkway.

“The creation of the CLARCOR Innovation Center is consistent with our vision to complement the technical teams of our operating companies with capabilities that drive our new product introduction to best in class in the filtration industry,” CLARCOR Chairman, President/CEO Christopher L. Conway said. “This also allows us to realize our mission to provide filtration solutions to our companies and customers through a focus on unique media, innovative processes and differentiated products that bring increased value to our customers, employees and shareholders.”

The CLARCOR Innovation Center will house research scientists and engineers, along with the Company’s Advanced Filtration Solutions group, and will serve as CLARCOR’s central R&D center in support of CLARCOR operating companies around the world. The facility will include research laboratories, high-end testing equipment, pilot and semi-works production lines, and a learning center. Immediately following its purchase of the Columbia facility, CLARCOR will begin remodeling activities and relocating assets from a smaller R&D facility in Ohio.

Conway, stated, “Our strategy with the Innovation Center is to complement the talented scientists and innovators working in our various operating companies around the world with a centralized resource to better leverage our significant synergies and launch more best in class filtration products and technologies across CLARCOR.” The Innovation Center will focus on developing unique filtration media, advancing our nanofiber capabilities, and creating innovative processes and differentiated filtration products that can deliver increased value to our customers, employees and shareholders.

“The CLARCOR Innovation Center will be located a half hour from the Company’s corporate headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee, which we believe is the perfect place for us to operate and to be able to recruit top level talent, both internally and externally. Of course, we could not have secured such an ideal location without the strong support we received from the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the city of Columbia and Maury County, and we deeply appreciate the efforts their people made to make this project possible. We expect that this facility will be as much a source of pride for the local community as it will be for CLARCOR.”

“The city of Columbia is very excited to see that CLARCOR is coming to our community,” Columbia Mayor Dean Dickey said. “This is a project that will benefit our citizens and workforce, and we want to do everything possible to make this operation successful. Our door will always be open, and we are just a phone call away.”

“TVA and Columbia Power and Water Systems congratulate CLARCOR on its decision to locate a new research facility in Columbia,” John Bradley, TVA Senior Vice President of Economic Development, said. “We are glad to be partners with the state of Tennessee, the Maury Alliance and city of Columbia and Maury County officials to assist companies like CLARCOR to create new jobs and economic prosperity in the community.”

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