A Scottish commercial-refrigeration company is trading in the overcast skies of the United Kingdom for a new headquarters in Jacksonville.
City Refrigeration is hiring around 100 locals for its North American headquarters.
Mayor Lenny Curry kept the economic development announcement on ice before serving it up publicly Thursday. City Refrigeration is partnering with Southeastern Grocers, the parent company of grocery chain Winn-Dixie. The Scottish company will provide freezer equipment and maintenance for Southeastern Grocer’s three supermarket chains.
Curry said the new jobs are the direct result of his team’s efforts in London a few months ago.
“This is a statement about a target on job creation and saying that we are going to compete internationally and that our trips to London in fact have a significant return on investment,” Curry said.
Initially the company is planning to hire 51 Jacksonvillians, but said it plans to expand that number by another 50 by the end of next year. The average salary for the new jobs would be about $70,000 a year.
City Refrigeration is getting a little more than $150,000 in city and state incentives to make the choice and plans to spend more than $5 million on its facility.
