- April 17, 2024
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A new industry is coming to Flagler County, and with it comes 300 jobs over the next three years.
Aveo Engineering, an international producer of LED lighting products, broke ground on Tuesday for its new, $7 million facility at the Flagler County Airport. That same day, the company planned to hire the first of its new employees. During its first year, Aveo will hire 50 and train local residents.
The average salary for Aveo employees will be $43,000.
Gov. Rick Scott introduced the company during the groundbreaking ceremony before presenting Aveo President Christian Nielsen with a medal for creating jobs in Florida.
“The most important thing we can do for our families is get them to work, to get them jobs,” Scott said.
Nielsen has a military background, an experience that alerted him to a problem: The lights on planes and other conveyances needed to be replaced too frequently. After replacing the lights on a plane twice during a flight through the Arctic Circle, he decided to start Aveo.
“That’s how businesses get built: People find problems and they solve them,” Scott said.
Aveo is a producer of electronics and LED lighting products for the aviation, marine, vehicle, mining, industrial and obstruction warning/safety markets worldwide.
Nielsen said he was drawn to Florida — and to Flagler, specifically — because of its commitment to economic development. The company has facilities in the United States, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, India and Malaysia. It considered many locations, such as Texas, before settling on Flagler County.
Nielsen referenced Scott’s proposal to offer cheaper tuition for university students who are pursuing degrees in science and technology than in humanities as one of the reasons the state was ideal. That program, he said to Scott, “sets you apart.”
But the jobs Aveo creates are not meant only for those with engineering degrees. Nielsen said that his company will train employees and that he hopes to reach people who never thought that a career was attainable.
And the company hopes to expand beyond its projected number of jobs.
“Our plan is not just to change 300 lives, but thousands more,” Nielsen said. "We're bringing high-tech jobs here, but we're going to have jobs across the entire spectrum. It's not just engineers we're looking for."
Florida Sen. John Thrasher also attended, and lauded Scott for his “laser, laser focus on the economy and creating jobs,” which he said helped land Aveo in Flagler County.
To help incentivize Aveo’s location in Flagler, the county will pay up to $150,000 to the business for jobs created. Over the next four years, for every job created and retained, the company will receive an annual incentive of $500 over those four years. The state is also paying an incentive package to Aveo.
The deal was orchestrated by Flagler County's Economic Opportunity Department, headed by Helga van Eckert.
As construction moves forward on Aveo's new facility, the company will operate from a temporary headquarters in Palm Coast.
Flagler County Commissioner Barbara Revels said that the county has landed what every county in the nation wants: an industry that creates sustainable careers. It is important that students from Flagler County have a career they can come back to after graduation — otherwise they won’t come back.
“We don’t have much of that here, but this is going to be that for us,” Revels said. “It really is a game-changer.”
