A four-year-old company near Elizabethtown has announced plans to construct a new headquarters and create up to 61 new jobs over the next four years.
TPS Industrial Services, LLC, located at 3622 S. County Road 650E, plans to immediately add four more full-time positions to its current 15-person payroll, according to the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
Commercially licensed truck drivers, dispatchers and sales executives will be hired for positions expected to pay 25 percent higher than the state’s average wage, the economic development agency said in a news release.
The new jobs will pay a blended average of about $26 an hour, said Jason Hester, president of the Greater Columbus Economic Development Corporation.
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“Some salaries will be more, and some will be less,” Hester said.
Nearly $3.5 million will be invested over the next two years on a new headquarters that will provide 50,000 more square feet than the 150,000-square-foot warehousing facility that TPS currently occupies, according to the release.
However, a decision on whether TPS will build has not yet been made, Hester said.
The investment also will allow the company to purchase additional trucks and trailers, as well as house its distribution and fulfillment center on site, the release stated.
As a trucking and logistics solution provider, TPS provides distribution and fulfillment, as well as transportation management services.
TPS today works to provide supply chain efficiencies for more than a dozen businesses including Faurecia, Penske, Echo Global Logistics and Sunright America.
Expansion is based on the rising demand from customers to ship dry goods, plastic parts, automotive supplies and canned goods across the country, the release stated.
Company founder and president Telma Santana began her career as a material and logistics manager for Johnson Controls Inc. in her hometown of Sao Paulo, Brazil, according to the company’s website.
After marrying another Johnson Controls employee, the company transferred the couple to El Paso, Texas, in 2001. It wasn’t until her husband, Felix H. Santana, was hired by Cummins Inc. in 2012 that the couple moved to Columbus, the website stated.
After hearing daily discussions regarding diesel engines and trucks, Santana decided to found TPS in 2013 as a truck load service provider with a single truck and driver, according to the website.
In subsequent months, the company was able to gradually secure more than 10 trucks, as well as obtain its warehousing facility in southeast Bartholomew County, the website stated.
Based on the company’s job-creation plans, up to $500,000 in conditional tax credits, as well as up to $40,000 in training grants, will be provided to TPS, the release stated.
Since the tax credits are performance-based, the company is not eligible to claim them until after the new employees are hired, the release stated.
The incentives also could be curtailed if the company does not meet its job-creation plans, Hester said.
TPS will wait until it has made a decision on a future location to seek incentives on the local level, he said.
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Founded: 2013
Type of business: Integrated logistics solution provider with shipping and warehousing facilities.
Address: 3622 S. County Road 650E, Columbus
Founder and President: Telma Santana
Employees: Recently increased from 5 to the current 16. Up to 61 employees will be added by 2020.
Distinctions: A Women’s Business Enterprise certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, as well as a Minority Business Enterprise certified by the Minority Supplier Development Council.
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