Oklahoma City startup qualifies for up to $1.9M in state incentives
By Brianna Bailey
Copyright © 2016, The Oklahoma Publishing Company
An Oklahoma City-based startup company has qualified for up to $1.9 million in state incentives over the next 10 years through the Oklahoma Quality Jobs program, the Oklahoma Department of Commerce said Thursday.
Spiers New Technologies Inc., which remanufactures batteries for use in electric cars and other alternative forms of energy, hopes to create 116 new jobs in Oklahoma City over the next decade with the help of the incentives.
The Quality Jobs incentives will help the company hire engineering staff and technicians at a quicker pace, said Dirk Spiers, president of Spiers New Technologies.
“I think it will help us accelerate growth and it allows us to add more engineers and high-level jobs sooner rather than later,” he said.
Spiers founded the company about a year and a half ago, and it now employs 35 people in Oklahoma City. Spiers hopes to eventually expand into Europe and China.
The company, based in a warehouse at 50 NE 42, grades and remanufactures used high-performance batteries. The batteries are used in electric cars, or in energy storage systems that hold excess energy from renewable sources, like solar power.
The Quality Jobs Program gives companies quarterly cash payments to locate and expand in the state.
Incentive payments are based on payroll numbers, and companies can obtain payments for up to 10 years. Most companies must maintain a taxable payroll of at least $2.5 million for four straight quarters in the first four years of the program to qualify for the job incentives.
