Around 200 new jobs are coming as General Electric, a US conglomerate based in New York, announced plans to bolster its old plant in Bloomington, Indiana. The rehabilitation plan at GE’s Bloomington facility is part of the company’s nationwide effort to revitalize its appliance business and make GE’s US factories more competitive worldwide. GE said that the company will spend over $432 million to push its global expansion plan. GE’s Bloomington plant currently employs 550 manufacturing workers and will increase that number by an additional 200 by 2013.

GE said that it will spend $161 million, out of a $432 million expansion budget, to rejuvenate the Bloomington plant. GE plans to transform four of the plant’s facilities to make it the company’s center of excellence.

In January 17, 2008, GE announced that the operations at Bloomington plant will be closed after suffering from a series of revenue losses. However, within a year, GE changed its decision and kept the plan open.

Mitch Roob, chief executive officer of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, explained that GE must have realized the potential of the plant after the company’s announcement. “The work force at the Bloomington plant has become far more productive in the last several years. The workers understood they were living in a world marketplace and needed to make sure they were competitive, and they responded effectively.”