The recent acquisition of a pair of Bloomfield businesses by a Pennsylvania-based company represents the first step in a planned expansion of those two businesses that eventually will lead to an investment of nearly $100 million and the hiring of several new employees, according to New Mexico and local officials.

In a Jan. 16 news release, officials at the New Mexico Economic Development Department announced that the Calgon Carbon Corporation, which is located in Pittsburgh but serves as a subsidiary of a Tokyo-based company, in October purchased Benchmark Equipment & Tank and Bloomfield Machine & Welding. Both businesses are at 326 N. Bergin Lane in Bloomfield.

After that deal was completed, EDD officials finalized an agreement with Calgon Carbon executives under which the state has pledged $150,000 from the agency’s Local Economic Development job-creation fund to assist in the expansion of the two businesses. They will add nine jobs this year, and 16 new ones will be created over a period of several years.

Calgon Carbon also will be able to access funding from the state’s Job Training Incentive Program, under which companies are reimbursed for job training programs, along with other incentives, for hiring high-wage workers, according to the release.

The average salary for those jobs will be $60,000 to $90,000, the release states, adding that the company plans to invest $94 million in New Mexico over the next 10 years.

News of the acquisition of the two businesses and Calgon Cabon’s planned expansion was hailed as welcome news by a variety of local officials.

“We’re very pleased to have them come into the community,” Bloomfield City Manager George Duncan said of the announcement, noting he was especially happy that all of the company’s current employees have been retained and that he looks forward to seeing the company grow in the future.

Duncan said he was trying to arrange a meeting with Calgon Carbon executives so that he could review the facility and gain a better understanding of how it operates. Calgon Carbon spokeswoman Amanda Lofty said the company produces granular activated carbon, which is used to clean air and water. She said the company has many municipal customers who use that activated carbon to treat contaminated water.

“A lot of the time, we use big tanks … to hold the activated carbon as it treats the water,” she wrote in an email to The Daily Times in which she described the company’s operations. “We have an equipment plant in Pittsburgh, and now with our New Mexico plant we will be able to make this equipment for our West Coast and Southwest Customers.”

Scott Bird, the interim CEO of Four Corners Economic Development, a nonprofit organization promoting economic development in San Juan County, also cheered the announcement.

“This is really a nice win for Bloomfield,” he said.

Bird said his organization did not play a significant role in the transaction, but he said it was his understanding that state Sen. Bill Sharer was instrumental in helping the deal get done. He said he believes the presence of Calgon Carbon will have a strong impact on the economic climate throughout the county.

“It’s new capital into the community, which is always a good thing,” he said. “It adds a synergetic energy to industry over there.”

Bird said it was his understanding that Calgon Carbon executives were drawn to the Bloomfield businesses because of the presence of so many highly skilled welders in the community, a workforce the company will rely on to produce the tanks it uses in its purification systems.

In her email, Lofty confirmed the presence of those workers helped seal the deal for her company.

“Benchmark and Bloomfield have a wonderful workforce of welders and will help us help our customers treat their drinking water,” she wrote.

Lofty said she did not know whether the Bloomfield businesses would need to be modified or whether the workforce would require additional training.

“I don’t have any information of future plant plans, but we only finished the acquisition in (the fourth quarter of 2023),” she wrote.

Steve Schott, the president and CEO of Calgon Carbon, stated in the news release that the state funds his company is accessing will help the company “leverage this talented New Mexico workforce as we expand our manufacturing to help our customers in the Southwest meet their critical water quality and safety needs.”

The company’s move into New Mexico represents only part of its plan to expand its operations nationwide. Calgon Carbon executives announced in an Oct. 13 news release that they were increasing the capacity of their Pearlington, Mississippi plant, a move that would bring 38 new jobs to that community.

In the EDD news release, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham took note of the new investment and technology the company is bringing to the state.

“I look forward to a continuing partnership with this innovative business as we build a jobs-rich sustainable economy for all New Mexicans,” she stated.

EDD Cabinet Secretary Mark Roper referenced how the move might help offset the many energy-related jobs that have been lost in San Juan County in recent years, most notably through the 2022 closure of the San Juan Generating Station and the associated Westmoreland Mine that kept it supplied with coal

“This investment will expand a skilled workforce and increase wages in a part of the state that has seen a lot of job displacement,” he said in the release. “It also puts Bloomfield at the center of a future-driven technology that helps diversify New Mexico’s economy.”

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Calgon Carbon wants to invest $94M in New Mexico over 10 years