Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman welcomed the opening of Ellie Diagnostics LLC’s flagship laboratory as leaders at the full-service veterinary wellness and diagnostic services provider held the grand opening of the company’s national hub, which will create up to 100 full-time jobs for Kentuckians.
“Kentucky continues to attract new businesses with a vision for the future and faith in our state’s talented workforce,” Gov. Beshear said. “Ellie Diagnostics is a company that supports veterinary clinics throughout the United States and its leaders recognized the tremendous benefits of locating in our state to grow their business. I look forward to the company growing in Louisville and creating even more jobs for our residents.”
“Ellie Diagnostics is a quality company creating great jobs for Kentucky residents with this flagship lab in Jefferson County,” Lt. Gov. Coleman said. “Kentucky is home to so many thriving industries, and I am glad to see this company build on our state’s record economic momentum. I wish Ellie many years of success in the commonwealth.”
The company’s first Kentucky location was announced in February and capitalizes on the state’s logistics strength with proximity to the world’s largest UPS air hub in Louisville, local couriers and other national logistics providers to deliver next-day lab results to veterinary clinics around the country. Jobs being created at Ellie’s new location include licensed veterinary technicians, laboratory technicians and medical transcriptionists.
“The rapid growth in the veterinary industry prompted Ellie Diagnostics to open this gorgeous 33,000-square-foot technologically advanced laboratory,” said Ellie founder and CEO Mark DeCourcy. “We’re excited to expand our operations to the great state of Kentucky and have already employed many local veterinary professionals. We will continue to grow our lab staff over the next few months as we ramp up our specimen processing with a priority on early morning results for our customers.”
Ellie, based in Dallas, Texas, provides high-quality lab services to veterinarians across the United States. Services include comprehensive testing, such as chemistry, hematology, parasitology, coagulation, microbiology, cytology, histopathology, endocrinology and serology. The company also offers an online portal for test results, complementary supplies, personalized customer service and an industry leading Wellie report to help pet owners easily understand the wellness status of their pets.
Ellie’s new national hub relies on Kentucky’s thriving logistics and distribution sector, which includes approximately 600 facilities that employ 90,000 people statewide.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer welcomed the company to the commonwealth.
“We’re thrilled that Ellie Diagnostics has chosen to locate its new flagship laboratory in Louisville – positioning itself to leverage UPS Worldport to receive, process and distribute diagnostic testing results, vital prescription medication and dental implants across the United States and around the globe,” Mayor Fischer said. “I applaud Ellie Diagnostics for recognizing Louisville’s unique strength in medical logistics, and I thank them for bringing more well-paying jobs to our community and further bolstering our reputation as an international powerhouse for logistics.”
Ellie’s investment and planned job creation furthers recent economic momentum in the commonwealth, as the state builds back stronger from the effects of the pandemic.
In 2021, the commonwealth shattered every economic development record in the books. Private-sector new-location and expansion announcements included a record $11.2 billion in total planned investment and commitments to create a record 18,000-plus full-time jobs across the coming years. Kentucky’s average incentivized hourly wage for projects statewide in 2021 was $24 before benefits, a 9.4% increase over the previous year.
In the past year, the Beshear administration announced the two largest economic development projects in state history. In September 2021, Gov. Beshear and leaders from Ford Motor Co. and SK Innovation celebrated a transformative $5.8 billion investment that will create 5,000 jobs in Hardin County. And in April of this year, the Governor was joined by leadership at Envision AESC to announce a $2 billion investment that will create 2,000 jobs in Warren County. These announcements solidify Kentucky as the EV battery production capital of the United States.
The economic momentum has carried strongly into 2022, with both S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings upgrading Kentucky’s financial outlook to positive in recognition of the commonwealth’s surging economy.
And Site Selection magazine placed Kentucky at 6th in its annual Prosperity Cup rankings for 2022, which recognizes state-level economic success based on capital investments.
Kentucky has posted new record low unemployment rates for three consecutive months, falling from 3.9% in April to 3.8% in May and 3.7% in June.
In July, the Governor reported the highest annual growth rate in 31 years. And for the second year in a row, Kentucky’s General Fund budget surplus has exceeded $1 billion. Also in July, Gov. Beshear reported that the state’s Rainy Day fund is up to a record balance of $2.7 billion, significantly higher than the $129 million balance the fund had when the Governor took office.
To encourage investment and job growth in the community, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) in December 2021 preliminarily approved an incentive agreement with the company under the Kentucky Business Investment program.
By meeting its annual targets over the agreement term, the company can be eligible to keep a portion of the new tax revenue it generates. The company may claim eligible incentives against its income tax liability and/or wage assessments.
In addition, Ellie can receive resources from Kentucky’s workforce service providers. Those include no-cost recruitment and job placement services, reduced-cost customized training and job-training incentives.