MANUFACTURING AND INDUSTRIAL SUCCESS STORIES ABOUND

Manufacturing employment has taken off in Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri over the past decade.

During this period of time, more counties added manufacturing jobs than lost them in the Federal Reserve Bank System's Eighth District, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis.

"A lot of activity has taken place in the past couple of years in Southeast Missouri, especially in the Cape Girardeau and Sikeston areas," said Phil Tate, of the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

Tate was in Cape Girardeau recently when Biokyowa announced a $35 million expansion for its facility in Nash Road Industrial Park.

"Happenings in this area has attracted attraction recently," added Tate.

He was referring to the $350 million expansion, announced in April by Procter & Gamble Paper Products, and some big announcements at Sikeston -- a $35 million Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream expansion -- and New Madrid -- $56 million Noranda Aluminum expansion at New Madrid -- and from the Bootheel, a $100 million, 250-megawatt power generation plant, being constructed jointly by Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. and Duke Energy Corp. near Glennonville in Dunklin County.

There have been two big construction announcements this year for the Charleston area in Mississippi County -- a $73 million prison facility, and Gates Rubber Company expansion, which will double the manufacturing capabilities and add 170 new jobs.

More than half of the new industrial projects in the Southeast Missourian in 1997 can be found among the state's "Top 10" business projects in terms of dollar investments.

In recapping Missouri's Top 10 economic development projects, the Missouri Department of Economic Development, noted that the year's largest project in terms of dollar investment -- and one of the largest such projects in more than a decade -- was the announcement of a new plant near Cape Girardeau by Procter and Gamble, at an estimated $350 million.

Five Southeast Missouri projects entered the Top 10 investment list:

-- $350 million P&G expansion.

-- $100 million, 250-megawatt power generation plant, being constructed jointly by Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. and Duke Energy Corp.

-- $56 million Noranda Aluminum expansion.

-- $35 million Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream expansion.

-- $35 million Bikyowa Expansion in Nash Road Industrial Park.

This totals up to more than a half-billion dollars -- $576 million.

Following is a capsule look at some Southeast Missouri economic development projects.

-- Procter & Gamble will build a $350 million addition to its Cape Girardeau County plant to enable an increase in production of tissues and towels. The expansion, which will be among the Top 3 industrial projects in Missouri over the past decade, will result in about 350 more jobs. The plant currently employs more than 1,225 workers. The addition will be adjacent to the plant and will put about 20 acres under roof, which translates into more than 850,000 square feet. The plant already has more than 30 acres -- 1.3 million square feet.

-- The $100 million, 250-megawatt power generation plant, is being built in Southeast Missouri, jointly developed by Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. and Duke Energy Corp. It will be located in the Bootheel, near AECI's existing transmission lines west of Glennonville in Dunklin County on the east side of the St. Francis River. When completed by mid-1999, the facility will have a significant economic impact on the area through the property tax base, and will employ 20 to 25 people.

-- Noranda Aluminum Inc. will spend more than $56 million over the next two years to increase aluminum production at its plant in St. Jude Industrial Park. The project will increase Noranda's aluminum production capacity by about 15 percent, or 73 million pounds a year. Noranda Aluminum, a wholly owned subsidiary of Noranda Inc., of Toronto, Canada, produces aluminum for sale throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.

-- Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream Co., with annual sales approaching $1 billion, will expand its Sikeston operation with a $35 million plant. The new plant is being constructed on a 40-acre site in the new Sikeston Business and Technology Park five miles from the current ice cream plant. The Good Humor-Breyers plant will more than double the size of the company's plant at Sikeston, and add another 200 workers to put the work force at 500.

-- Gates Rubber Co., will expand facilities at Charleston and Poplar Bluff. The $5.7 million project will add more than 170 new jobs at Charleston and about 40 new positions at Poplar Bluff.

-- Caterpillar, a large manufacturer of mining and construction equipment, natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines, is building a 190,000-square-foot plant for the manufacture of high-pressure hydraulic hoses at West Plains. The new plant will create about 100 jobs. Caterpillar has also announced a 40,000-square-foot expansion that will increase employment at Dyersburg in West Tennessee.

-- A 120-acre site just south of Charleston has been selected for the construction the new $73 million, 1,500-bed maximum securing prisons.