Mumpower said the city was involved with American Merchant for more than the past six months.

“There was a whole series of meetings since summertime that led up to the culmination of the city getting them,” Mumpower said. “Showing them the community, showing them the training we had at the [Southwest Virginia Advanced Manufacturing] Center of Excellence up in Abingdon, showing them what we had with the school system, the infrastructure, the interstate and rail — basically [promoting] everything that comes with the building. This is a nice building, but a lot more comes with that. Once they saw that entire package, they saw we had a lot to offer.”

Mumpower also voiced optimism that other companies might take note of this firm’s decision and consider coming here too.

Burton, the American Merchant chairman, said more than 50 specialized manufacturing machines are currently being ordered from Italy, Germany and Japan and will likely arrive by mid-2018.