A PPE manufacturing company will soon move into new facilities in Broussard.

Governor John Bel Edwards, officials from Ochsner Lafayette General Health, and other state and local leaders made that announcement at one of those facilities, which is still under construction.

Ochsner Health and Trax Development are partnering to create this joint venture.

"(This is a) significant win for the people of Acadiana, for the state, and for our entire nation," Patrick Gandy, Ochsner Lafayette General Health CEO said.

SafeSource is building a Nitrile plant on Lake Talon Road in the St. Martin Parish portion of the city. The company is also renovating an existing facility on St. Nazaire Road on the Lafayette Parish side to become an SMS plant. The St. Nazaire property will also serve as SafeSource’s corporate headquarters.

Bill Cassidy at Broussard Announcement
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In all, SafeSource is investing $150 million in both facilities.

The Nitrile plant will produce surgical gloves. The SMS plant will be the manufacture site of N95 respirators, surgical tie masks, procedure masks, gowns, and shoe covers for healthcare workers. Those facilities will not only manufacture the products, but they’ll also warehouse and directly distribute the products to health care companies and other industries in Acadiana and across the United States.

According to Governor Edwards, these new plants will help the United States fill a desperate need exposed by the COVID pandemic.

“We were trying to source all these materials you see up here—gowns and gloves and shoe coverings and masks and everything else—from all over the world, but principally coming from China. And so, we need more innovation and more determination in the United States and in Louisiana, and that’s what we’re seeing today.”

The capital investment totals more than $120 million. The facilities together will create more than 2,200 total jobs, the majority of which are direct jobs.

St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars says this is a prime opportunity for Acadiana to build its infrastructure to attract more business and industry.

"We as local leaders, we have a challenge now," Cedars said. "We've got this facility. Now, we can't screw it up! We gotta make sure the people that it attracts for leadership, for the jobs, we have to give them quality services in return so they will be excited about being here.'

On Wednesday's edition of Acadiana's Morning News, we’ll examine that challenge Cedars issued to his fellow government leaders. We'll also have Governor Edwards’s response to it. Click here to read and to listen to that story.

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