ELGIN — Gov. Bruce Rauner today kicked off National Manufacturing Month by proclaiming October Built in Illinois Month to showcase the importance of the industry to the Illinois economy.
“Illinois has a long, remarkable manufacturing history,” the governor said. “It is an economic engine responsible for much of our state’s growth and prosperity dating back 200 years.”
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Today, the industry is the second largest in Illinois. More than 12,000 firms employ nearly 600,000 Illinoisans whose products account for 13 percent of the state’s gross domestic product. Ninety-two percent of the state’s exports are manufactured products.
The governor’s Built in Illinois tour began with a stop at Hoffer Plastics in Elgin. The retail packaging company was founded in 1953 and was the winner of the 2015 Illinois Governor’s Sustainability Award.
“We are honored to have Governor Rauner visit us today and talk about manufacturing and workforce development,” said President and CEO William Hoffer. “It is an important part of our mission to develop our employees as well as always retain the ones we have. So we're honored to have him here and hopefully we can work together on improving the employment situation in our area and certainly within the state.”
Illinois possesses many competitive advantages: transportation, logistics, technology, education, and, most important, the best trained, most productive workforce in the country,” Rauner said. “It is high time that government became an advantage, too, by reducing the cost of regulations you have to bear.”
The Built in Illinois tour will continue throughout the month of October.
