Ilmor Engineering opens $7M marine-engine plant in Mooresville
Ilmor Engineering Ltd. of Northamptonshire, England, has hired 15 workers and is producing test engines from a facility it’s leasing at the Penske Racing South campus.
The company is investing nearly $7 million in the facility. Ilmor, operating under its U.S. company, Ilmor Marine, will expand the operation to 30 employees by year end.
The company already is shipping marine engines to Tennessee-based MasterCraft Boat Co., and it plans to immediately ramp up production in Mooresville.
The plant will enable the company to pursue other segments of the marine-engine business, says Paul Ray, president of Ilmor Engineering Inc., another U.S. subsidiary of the British company.
“The new facility allows us to expand into higher-volume markets, with an initial focus upon our key partner, MasterCraft," he says.
Melanie O’Connell Underwood, former executive director of the Mooresville-South Iredell Economic Development Corp., has been working to recruit the company for the last three years.
Underwood, now president of Melanie O’Connell Underwood Economic Development Consulting, says Ilmor approached her in 2007 with plans for a local facility but delayed the project when the recession crippled boat sales. The company reactivated those plans last year.
Ilmor Engineering Inc. makes IndyCar and Formula 1 engines that have chalked up almost 250 wins in those racing series. Charlotte Business Journal