ABB Installation Products has opened its $4 million facility in Palmer Township that will create 100 jobs.

The Swiss company’s operation is the latest example of foreign direct investment in the Lehigh Valley. The region is home to more than 80 international companies from 23 countries. In 2022 alone, international companies announced or completed 2 million square feet of space.

ABB, which designs and manufactures components for electrical systems, chose the Lehigh Valley for the location of its 350,000-square-foot Northeast Distribution Center to be closer to customers and to reduce delivery times to more than a dozen states by up to 50%.

“These locations are very strategic for us. It's very important for our ability to serve the Northeast,” Ken Shotts, ABB’s Vice President of Logistics and Inventory, said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 11. “What used to take five or six days to get, now our customers are going to get in a day or two.”

The Lehigh Valley is within a day’s drive of one-third of the U.S. population. That is a primary deciding factor for many businesses that choose to locate here, along with the availability of a skilled workforce readied by the region’s 11 colleges and universities and three career and technical schools.

“Speed makes a difference,” Shotts said. “Our customers need the product when they need the product. Our product is critical to the infrastructure of this state and of the country. Our products go into food production, hospitals, utilities, infrastructure, and all kinds of areas that are critical to the well-being of our country.”

ABB’s Lehigh Valley location, which can hold about $15 million in inventory, is part of the company’s commitment to protecting the environment, he said.

“By moving closer to our customers, we're reducing 25,000 miles a week of transportation. Over 4,000 tons of CO2 emissions will not occur because we've opened this facility,” Shotts said. “Sustainability is a key metric and a key driver for us. This building helps contribute to that goal.”

Since 2010, ABB has invested more than $14 billion in U.S. facilities.

“We're just so glad that you're here and that you chose the Lehigh Valley and that you're here to stay,” said Megan Beste, District Director for U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, who thanked ABB on behalf of officials from the state, Palmer Township, Northampton County, and the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. (LVEDC).

Ralph Donati, ABB’s Executive Vice President and General Manager for the U.S. and Latin America, said the opening of the Northeast Distribution Center “represents more than a financial investment. It really reinforces our commitment to our continued growth in the U.S., which is our largest market, to this community of Easton as well as the entire Lehigh Valley region.”

About 40% of the economic development prospects that reached out to LVEDC in 2022 were from outside the U.S.

“ABB will now join over 5,300 other internationally run firms around the state that employ about 350,000 people. It's a major part of the Pennsylvania economy, our international investors,” said David Briel, Deputy Secretary for International Business Development at the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development.