CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – A U.K. company that bought Maytag Corp.'s commercial microwave oven division three months ago plans to build a $6 million production facility in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
AGA Foodservice Group, which makes high-end residential ranges and refrigerators and commercial appliances for restaurants and bakeries, will create around 112 jobs when production begins in late 2007, company officials said Wednesday.
Company executives began looking for a Midwest production site after buying Amana Commercial Microwaves from Whirlpool Corp. in September.
Whirlpool acquired the oven division – which has produced microwave ovens at the plant in Middle Amana since 1965 – when it bought out Maytag earlier in the year.
Products manufactured at the plant will keep the Amana name and about 30 nonunion employees could transfer there, said Iain Whyte, president of AGA Foodservice Inc.
AGA, based in Solihull, England, had 2005 sales of more than $863 million with 6,000 employees worldwide.