Manufacturer misses out on government incentives after falling short of investment goals at Chesterfield plant
German electronic components manufacturer Weidmüller’s plant on Southlake Boulevard. (Photo courtesy Chesterfield County)
Three years ago, Weidmüller Group announced plans to expand its Chesterfield manufacturing facility, including making capital investments and hiring dozens of new employees, in an effort that included potential financial incentives from the county and state.
In the years since, the company has hired some new local workers and made some improvements to the plant, but not enough to receive those government payouts for the project.
The German manufacturer had until March 30 to invest $16.4 million and hire 96 new employees at its facility at 821 Southlake Blvd. in order to receive state and local grant funding to support the company’s expansion plans unveiled in 2023.
Weidmüller hired about 20 local employees in connection with the project, and invested $11 million in the Chesterfield plant since then, which included a 24,000-square-foot addition to the facility, the company said in a statement last week.
Because it fell short of its targets, the company ultimately did not receive about $500,000 in state and local incentives that had been teed up for the project.
Weidmüller said its U.S. division is experiencing double-digit, year-over-year growth, and said that while it didn’t meet the deadline to receive money through the incentives package, due to changes in the company’s planning and economic factors, it was still committing to investing in its American operations that are based in Chesterfield.
“While internal timeline shifts mean we are no longer utilizing the 2023 state incentive package, our expansion plans haven’t slowed down. We remain deeply grateful to the Commonwealth of Virginia and Chesterfield County for their ongoing partnership,” a prepared statement from Randy Sadler, CEO of the company’s U.S. operations, read in part.
“Our initial 2023 announcement reflected a vision built on market conditions at the time. In the ensuing years, as the global economic landscape shifted, we made the proactive decision to refine the project scope to better align with our primary objective: meeting our U.S. sales goals and ensuring managed, sustainable growth.”
Weidmüller’s Chesterfield facility is now 116,000 square feet following the expansion. The company, which makes equipment that connects and automates electrical signaling and power for machines and components, says the local plant currently has 165 employees, which is fewer than the approximately 190 employees the facility had at the time the expansion plans were unveiled.
In June 2025, the company announced the opening of a new engineering and production facility at the plant, which was built as part of the expansion announced in 2023 alongside then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
The company was eligible for a $488,450 grant from the Commonwealth’s Development Opportunity Fund (COF); support from the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, a workforce recruitment initiative, and a $48,000 grant from the Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Zone program.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership recently terminated the COF agreement and no funds were released for the project because the investments and job creation came in under projections, according to a VEDP spokeswoman.
It is not unheard of for a project teed up for a COF grant to miss the targets needed to get the funding, the VEDP said.
“We typically have approximately 100 active COF projects with an open performance period at any given time, representing multiple years of awards. On an annual basis, about 15% of these COFs are rescinded because the company does not meet the minimum statutory capital investment and/or job requirement,” the spokeswoman said in an email.
The state’s economic development authority sent Weidmüller a termination notice in February, following an alert the company sent to the to the VEDP in December stating that it didn’t anticipate it would meet the grant’s requirements.
The COF program can be tapped by the governor to clinch a company’s commitment to establish itself or expand in Virginia. The grants are composed of state funds and a local match, and are used by companies to pay construction costs associated with their projects.
The grant’s local match from the county would have taken the form of a $284,500 rebate on real estate and machinery & tools taxes, per the agreement.
No local funds were disbursed for the project, Deputy Chesterfield Economic Development Director Jake Elder said. He added that the company still made a sizable investment in its local operation, and that Chesterfield considered Weidmüller, which has operated in the county for decades, an important economic asset.
As for the usage of the state’s Talent Accelerator Program, Weidmüller’s Sadler said that the company has met with representatives of the initiative to “discuss potential training programs for our assembly teams as production levels steadily grow to align with increased sales in the U.S.”
The company said it shifted its recent hiring toward sales and market development, which would help build a pipeline to spur the facility’s future operational expansion.
“While our original projection of new hires for the expansion has not yet been achieved, we are confident that our 10-year growth plan will chart the pathway to welcoming even more team members,” Sadler said in his statement.
Sadler said the company also didn’t receive a grant through the Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Zone program, which is intended in part to encourage economic activity that would increase the amount of cargo passing through the state’s port.
In addition to hiring goals, the expansion announced in 2023 was to include $7.8 million in construction, $5.6 million for furniture and business personal property and $1.6 million in machinery and tools, according to the agreement.
The project also included the acquisition of 5 acres at 630 Johnston Willis Drive, which is next to Weidmüller’s facility. The company bought the land for $1.2 million in early 2023.
The company has said it acquired the land to accommodate future growth of its local operations. Weidmüller’s facility, which was built in the 1970s, was also expanded in 2014.
Weidmüller was founded in 1850 and is headquartered in Germany.
