One of Genesee County's most successful industrial manufacturers, Oxbo International, founded in Byron 50 years ago, is planning a new 195,000-square-foot facility in Bergen.
According to planning documents, the new factory will replace the existing plant at 7275 Byron Road, Byron.
The new location is part of the GCEDC-created industrial park, Apple Tree Acres, which already includes Liberty Pumps, Craft Cannery ), All Season Party Tent Rentals, GE Renewable Energy, Insurance Auto Auctions, and Leonard Bus Sales.
The 49.7-acre parcel is off South Lake Road, just south of Clinton Street Road.
The Genesee County Planning Board recommends project approval after a brief presentation on Thursday evening.
Oxb manufactures custom-built specialized farming equipment. Planning documents state that the new facility will allow the business to continue growing.
The new site will provide ample room for expansion, said project manager David Ciurzyski.
In response to a question about parking, Ciurzynski said there would be parking in the back for existing employees, with room to add more parking.
"Right now, they have 140 employees," Ciurzynski said. "They're expecting over the next five or six years to have another 140 employees. They'll have room there to expand that parking for those new employees as they come on board."
The company is applying for tax abatements on the project from the Genesee Economic Development Center.
Oxbo began in Byron as a pallet repair business and then became Byron Equipment after filing for a patent on a corn head -- a mechanism to attach to the front of a combine that picks ears of corn off of stalks, leaving the stock behind.
The company then grew through mergers and acquisitions.
In 1998, Byon Equipment acquired a competitor in Wisconsin, and the new management team settled on the name Oxbo, after an oxbow that yolks and ox team together, to symbolize the concept of the new two integrated teams pulling together.
Both plants stayed in production.
In 2003, Oxbo acquired a pea-picking combine company in Illinois and moved that manufacturing operation to Byron. Oxbo is the only manufacturer of a pea-picking combine in the U.S.
In 2004, Oxbo acquired a fruit company in Washington state, and this past June, the company acquired another company in Wisconsin.
However, one of the biggest mergers occurred in 2009, when Oxbo merged with its largest customer in Europe and moved its headquarters to the Netherlands.
The company also operates plants in Brazil, the United Kingdom, and France.
Oxbo employs about 1,200 people in total, 700 in the U.S. The company's gross annual revenue exceeds $400 million.
