Frederic Scheer employed 70 people making plastic resins from plant starches in suburban Los Angeles until he calculated in 2010 that he could save $600,000 a year by moving Cereplast Inc. to the middle of Indiana.
Cereplast paid $25,000 a year for a 120,000-square-foot plant in Seymour, south of Indianapolis, instead of $60,000 for less than half as much space in El Segundo, near Los Angeles International Airport, said Scheer, who founded the company in 2001. Health insurance, workers’ compensation and wages were all much cheaper in Indiana, he said.
