Orion to expand near Cortana Mall

• By GARY PERILLOUX
• Advocate business writer
• Published: Oct 28, 2009 - UPDATED: 1:01 p.m.

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An industrial instrument company will move from its Industriplex area location in southeast Baton Rouge to six acres near Cortana Mall and increase its employment from 70 to 105, the company announced today.

In an afternoon ceremony at its current location near Interstate 10 and Siegen Lane, Orion Instruments was joined by Gov. Bobby Jindal, Mayor-President Kip Holden and Baton Rouge Area Chamber President Adam Knapp in making the expansion announcement.

Orion, now in an 18,000-square-foot building, will build a 43,500-square-foot facility north of Cortana Mall, with room to expand in future years. In 2006, BRAC officials learned that Orion’s fast growth made expansion an eventual necessity. A property search led to the acreage on Oak Villa Drive, which Orion bought last week.

A subsidiary of Illinois-based Magnetrol International, Orion’s 2008 sales exceeded $12 million, and 90 percent of its sales are generated outside the state, making its expansion within the state even more beneficial, chamber and state officials said.

Don Sanders opened the business in 2001, the day after 9/11, with five employees.

“They could potentially go to Texas or any other state where light manufacturing is done,” said Chad Cornett, who oversees East Baton Rouge Parish business recruitment and expansions for the chamber. “But the labor pool was key.”

Orion has been successful in recruiting Spanish, Mandarin and other foreign language speakers who’ve aided the companies ability to do business with international customers, he said.

“They’ve been very complimentary of the work force, both on the manufacturing side and also from the engineering and bilingual skills side of things,” said Mike Odom, the chamber’s senior vice president of marketing and operations. “Also, they have been very impressed with Mayor Holden — not only with this involvement on this project but also with his vision for the entire parish and what he’s trying to do.”

Construction on the new facility near Cortana will begin early next year and take about a year to complete, company officials said. Salaries for the 35 new jobs will average about $40,000 a year.