Parent company to update APC facility

WEST KINGSTON – France-based Schneider Electric will invest “$3 million to $4 million” in the American Power Conversion facility on South Kingstown’s Fairgrounds Road, President and CEO Laurent Vernerey said this morning during a reception at the plant to mark national Invest in America Week.

Schneider Electric acquired American Power Conversion Corp. in February 2007, in an approximately $6.1 billion investment that Vernerey called “the largest acquisition we have ever completed.” (READ MORE) The company has 1,100 employees working at the local plant and, for the calendar year 2007, posted worldwide revenue of $3.5 billion for the APC division, with 48 percent of that generated in North America.

ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT

Vernerey told the gathering of federal, state and local officials that Schneider has decided to invest in the West Kingston facility “to make it a greater place to work” because company officials have found Rhode Island to be a “good” location for them.

Saul Kaplan, executive director of the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, applauded the announcement. “That’s a great vote of confidence in our state,” he said, “and we are very appreciative.”

Rather than physically expanding the plant, Vernery said, the parent company intends to “make this place more effective” by enhancing working conditions for employees and making the building more energy efficient.

He noted that APC’s local employees have been anxious about the company’s future plans, so the announcement would be a relief to them.

Local officials and area residents also had had naturally wondered about the company’s future in West Kingston after the French firm acquired it last year, Chet Lasell, spokesman for APC, later said. He suggested that APC is fortunate to have Schneider as a parent company, because Schneider has the resources to improve the facility and its operating process.

Among those present for this morning’s tour of the APC plant were Gov. Donald L. Carcieri and retired Rear Adm. William G. “Woody” Sutton, assistant secretary for manufacturing and services at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Sutton, in his remarks to the gathering, stressed the importance of foreign investment in the United States. “The domestic economy is just a subset of the global economy,” he said.

APC, formerly American Power Conversion Corp., is a division of West Kingston-based APC-MGE, the $3 billion Critical Power and Cooling Services unit of Rueil-Malmaison, France-based Schneider Electric (Paris: SU.PA, Euronext: SCHN). APC-MGE was formed by the merger last year of American Power Conversiion with Schneider’s MGE UPS Systems. For more information, visit www.apc-mge.com.