22-04-2025
New manufacturing project set to create 40 jobs in Bay County
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) — The Bay Economic Development Alliance held its investors meeting on Tuesday and announced a new project may be coming to Bay County.
The Bay EDA announced that Oxford Technologies Corporation will be establishing a manufacturing operation in Bay County.
Oxford Technologies creates the leading abrasion strip for the Black Hawk rotor blade. They are a key contributor to Sikorsky Aircraft.
The company will make a capital investment of more than $7.5 million and create 40 new jobs in Bay County.
They'll be leasing an existing manufacturing facility in the original Bay County Industrial Park on Highway 231.
Officials say Oxford Technologies chose Bay County to tap into local talent and for its proximity to local military bases.
'For many years, we've had an aviation mechanics program and think program at Haney Technical College, and we pump out great students. Still, we've never really had any maintenance companies in our airport. Before the students were being trained, they had to leave our community because we didn't have jobs for them,' Bay EDA President and CEO Becca Hardin said. 'We want people to have good jobs so that they can enjoy the amenities of our community, specifically the retired military. We have six military bases, our area, and they retired at a relatively young age. 38- 40 years old. And because we live in paradise, it's incumbent upon our team to bring in companies like we did today, so that people who are retired from the military to stay in our community still have a role.'
'Initially, it'll just be the leading-edge abrasion trip, but it goes across many different aircraft. They're all supposed to be helicopters, but there are commercial ones, there are military ones. But that's just how we initially plan on starting the company. With all the air force bases and naval bases here, there's a lot of defense contracting, and there's a lot we can do to help service that industry,' Oxford Technologies Corporation Vice President Jake Stearns said.
The project is 16 months in the making.
Oxford Technologies has eight employees now and is hoping to have 12 by the end of the year.
Bay EDA also recently brought IAG AeroGroup and Premier Aviation to Bay County, making the area an upcoming aviation hub.
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