U.S. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling toured Neogen's Lansing headquarters on Thursday, Oct. 15, his first visit to the capital city since being sworn in Oct. 2, according to WLNS.
Rep. Tom Barrett, who represents Michigan's 7th Congressional District, joined Sonderling at the food and animal safety company for what WLNS reported was Sonderling's second Lansing stop this year.
The visit put a spotlight on Neogen's $70 million expansion, which the company broke ground on in July 2022. The project, a 175,000-square-foot manufacturing building on East Shiawassee Street, was expected to create 60 to 100 new jobs ranging from automation technicians and chemists to process engineers, according to a Neogen press release. The company’s 2022 projections called for the expansion to raise Neogen's Lansing workforce from 650 employees to as many as 750. The company originally projected construction would finish by December 2023, followed by validation and other work through 2024.
In an Oct. 7 update, Neogen said it remained on track to begin manufacturing saleable Petrifilm products and transitioning production to its Lansing site in November 2026.
After walking through Neogen's facilities, Sonderling and Barrett planned to hold a roundtable with local stakeholders. Barrett said the discussion would focus on integrating the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) into workforce efforts already underway in Lansing, calling the company's work on next-generation food safety "really impressive," according to WLNS.
Sonderling said the DOL wants to ensure local workers benefit from major investments. He told WLNS that when companies invest in their communities, "the Department of Labor wants to make sure that local workers are getting these opportunities … and take these new high skilled, high paying jobs that didn't exist before."
The Senate confirmed Sonderling on Sept. 30 by a 47-41 vote, according to Senate records. He had led the department in an acting capacity since April, according to the DOL.
The Lansing stop was part of a broader Trump administration push in Michigan. Cabinet members have made more than two dozen visits to the state since Memorial Day, according to WLNS.
