CEC Motor moves to Manatee

BRADENTON — CEC Motor & Utility Services, an industrial motor remanufacturer, will soon move its headquarters to Manatee County, according to the Manatee Economic Development Council.

The business plans to hire 36 new employees over the next five years, according to an official statement from the EDC. Manatee County commissioners have approved $126,000 in performance-based incentives for CEC, which will be combined with $72,000 in approved state funds, to attract those jobs.

CEC Motor is a sister company of CEC Controls Co. Inc., which is based in Detroit. CEC Controls currently operates a sales office in Sarasota; that operation, along with CEC Motor's main facility, will be combined into one business within a 21,000-square-foot facility in Palmetto. CEC will spend $1.25 million to renovate and upgrade that facility, officials say.

“The EDC, county and state government enabled us to offset startup costs with incentives, allowing us to further concentrate our capital on equipment and facility upgrades to quickly bring our products to market,” says Jim Hough, chief operating officer at CEC Motor. “The training funds that they have proposed will help to accelerate our new employees training establishing them as a qualified, competent work force in a short period of time.”