FRANKFORT, Ky. (Feb. 1, 2022) – As companies continue to create new job opportunities in Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear today congratulated Ellie Diagnostics LLC – a Texas-based, full-service veterinary wellness and diagnostic services provider – on plans to open its first Kentucky location, which will serve as the company’s national hub and spur even more job growth for the state with up to 100 full-time jobs.
“I would like to welcome Ellie Diagnostics to Kentucky and thank the company’s leaders for creating quality job opportunities for residents in the Louisville area,” Gov. Beshear said. “Companies continue to recognize the many advantages of locating in the commonwealth, including our ideal geographic location, strong logistics and distribution presence, talented workforce and low cost of doing business. Congratulations to the Louisville community on landing another great company. I look forward to seeing Ellie Diagnostics grow in our state.”
Jobs associated with Ellie Diagnostics’ new location will include licensed veterinary technicians, laboratory technicians and medical transcriptionists. The company’s new location will make use of the world’s largest UPS air hub in Louisville, local couriers and other national logistics providers to deliver next-day lab results to veterinarian clinics around the country. Company leaders expect work on the project to begin this month and be completed by Q1 2022.
“We are thrilled to expand our operations in the great city of Louisville,” said Mark DeCourcy, founder and CEO of Ellie Diagnostics. “Our new advanced laboratory will deliver even faster turnaround times on precision lab results and further improve the diagnostics experience for veterinarians across the U.S.”
Based in Dallas, Texas, Ellie provides high-quality lab services to veterinarians in more than 40 states. Services include comprehensive testing, such as chemistry, hematology, parasitology, coagulation, microbiology, cytology, histopathology, endocrinology and serology. They also include an online portal for test results and supplies, personalized customer service and an industry leading Wellie report to help pet owners easily understand the wellness status of their pets.
Ellie’s new national hub will capitalize on Kentucky’s strong logistics and distribution presence, which includes approximately 590 facilities that employ nearly 80,000 people statewide.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said the company will be a great fit for Jefferson County.
“We are excited to welcome Ellie Diagnostics to a growing list of medical companies that are taking advantage of Louisville’s unique value proposition as an international logistics hub and center for rapid turnaround lab services and bringing high-wage jobs in this growing field to our city,” Mayor Fischer said. “Here, they can ship and analyze specimen all from a single location, ensuring vets and pet owners are able to quickly get the information they need to ensure their beloved family member’s health.”
Ellie’s investment and planned job creation furthers recent economic momentum in the commonwealth, as the state builds back stronger from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In January alone, new and expanding private-sector businesses in Kentucky announced projects totaling nearly $670 million in new investments and more than 1,400 jobs.
Gov. Beshear recently announced that on Jan. 28, S&P Global Ratings revised Kentucky’s financial outlook to positive from stable and affirmed its “A-” credit ranking. S&P cited a reduced reliance on one-time items to balance the budget and a higher balance in the state’s rainy day fund as primary factors influencing the change.
That follows a 2021 during which the commonwealth shattered every economic development record in the books. Private-sector new-location and expansion announcements included a record $11.2 billion in total planned investment and commitments to create a record 18,000-plus full-time jobs across the coming years. Kentucky’s average incentivized hourly wage for projects statewide in 2021 was $24 before benefits, a 9.4% increase over the previous year.
In September, Gov. Beshear, Ford Motor Co. Executive Chair Bill Ford, CEO Jim Farley and Dong-Seob Jee, president of SK Innovation’s battery business, announced the single largest economic development project in the history of the commonwealth, celebrating a transformative $5.8 billion investment that will create 5,000 jobs and places Kentucky at the forefront of the automotive industry’s future.
Kentucky also saw an all-time, record-setting budget surplus in fiscal year 2021 and enters 2022 with an estimated $1.9 billion more than budgeted.
In addition, Kentucky recently placed seventh overall in Site Selection magazine’s annual Business Climate Rankings. The commonwealth ranked third nationally in the 2020 projects per capita ranking and fifth in the 2021 Prosperity Cup rankings, positioning the state among the national leaders for business climate.
To encourage investment and job growth in the community, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) in December preliminarily approved an incentive agreement with the company under the Kentucky Business Investment program.
By meeting its annual targets over the agreement term, the company can be eligible to keep a portion of the new tax revenue it generates. The company may claim eligible incentives against its income tax liability and/or wage assessments.
In addition, Ellie can receive resources from Kentucky’s workforce service providers. Those include no-cost recruitment and job placement services, reduced-cost customized training and job-training incentives.
For more information on Ellie Diagnostics, visit EllieDiagnostics.com.
A detailed community profile for Jefferson County can be viewed here.
Information on Kentucky’s economic development efforts and programs is available at CED.ky.gov. Fans of the Cabinet for Economic Development can also join the discussion at facebook.com/CEDkygov, on Twitter @CEDkygov, Instagram @CEDkygov and LinkedIn.
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