A manufacturer with plans to hire more than 20 workers recently began operation at a remodeled building at PuebloPlex.

Cooper & Turner, an England-based company with a U.S. sales division in Denver, makes precision steel stud bolts for wind turbines and other products.

Globally, the company has been the top fastener supplier for Vestas wind turbines for 20 years. In 2014, the company made the decision to follow Denmark-based Vestas' lead and open its own U.S. division. The company also considered a plant site in Richmond, Va., before choosing Pueblo.

The choice of Pueblo was based on the area's pool of skilled labor, PuebloPlex's rail infrastructure and other offerings, and also the company's dealings with PuebloPlex executives and local governments, said Richard Grieve, president of Cooper & Turner's Denver-based U.S. division, Cooper and Turner Industries.

"We've had nothing but good experiences from the local government," Grieve said.

The plant currently employs about a dozen workers with plans to add a second production line and expand to 20 or more workers by late summer, he said. Longer term, the company will look to keep expanding, he said. The Pueblo plant "opens up a whole realm of possibilities in the U.S. market," he said.

On Thursday, Grieve, originally from Windsor, England and now based in Denver, gave a tour of the plant. A team of four engineers recently returned to England after traveling to Pueblo to help ready the site, he said. Two other workers from England remained in Pueblo to assist with training.

One of the company's key skills is its precision threading but it's also a leader in the handling of the large heavy raw steel rods that are converted into the stud bolts. The rods can measure up to 4 inches in diameter and stretch as long as 50 feet in length and on average the plant houses up to 1.5 million tons of the stock.

About 60 percent of the equipment used at the Pueblo plant was made in the U.S., Grieve noted.

Cooper & Turner is the first manufacturer to open a plant in recent times at PuebloPlex, the name given the buildings and large amount of land set aside for redevelopment at the Pueblo Chemical Depot.

"We are thrilled to welcome a new manufacturer, investing in and creating jobs in our community," PuebloPlex CEO Russell DeSalvo said. "Manufacturing lends itself well to our redevelopment plan and economic development efforts."

PuebloPlex remodeled a 45,000-square-foot section of a vacant building as the site for Cooper & Turner. The redevelopment authority invested about $500,000 in readying the site, most of which will be recouped as part of Cooper & Turner's lease payments, DeSalvo said.

The Pueblo County Office of Economic Development also assisted on the project, offering an incentive package that includes Enterprise Zone Tax credits and energy efficiency programs.

"Pueblo County is thrilled to have Cooper and Turner in our community," said Chris Markuson, the director of the county's economic development and geographic information systems.

Sarah Johns, the Pueblo branch manager of Cooper & Turner, praised the efforts of PuebloPlex staff and other Pueblo County agencies in assisting with the company's expansion.

"PuebloPlex and its employees have been an enormous help in making our expansion to Pueblo happen in a timely and efficient manner," she said in a statement. "We are excited to be opening our new manufacturing facility and thank the Pueblo Workforce Center for assisting us in filling our job openings with well qualified employees."

Cooper & Turner, based in Sheffield, England, is Europe's largest manufacturer of large diameter fasteners, according to Grieve.