3M Health Care to expand plant, create new jobs

3M Health Care has unveiled plans to expand its flagship South Dakota manufacturing plant.

This will see the company add 44,000 sq ft of additional floor space, while $40.2 million will be spent on new equipment at the factory, which produces medical tapes, dressings, surgical drapes and wound care products. 

Joaquin Delgado, executive vice president of 3M Health Care, said the investment is "designed to provide increased manufacturing capacity to support growing demand for our products". 

Work on the project will get underway in April, with the equipment installed periodically and completed by December 2018. In total, around 60 new jobs will be created by 2019. 

This is the second phase of the company's site-improvement plan and follows a $11.7 million upgrade was undertaken last year. It comes at a time when 3M Health Care is enjoying strong expansion, with its revenues increasing by four per cent last year and on track to enjoy similar levels of growth for 2014.