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Ireland-based company selects Rochester for U.S. expansion

www.nest-ion.com

There are some more jobs coming to the Eastman Business Park.

On Friday, Governor Cuomo announced that an Ireland-based company called NEST iON Limited will bring at least 17 jobs over the next three years to the park as it has chosen Rochester to establish its new research and development facility.

NEST iON produces high-performance lithium batteries, specifically designed for law enforcement, intelligence agencies and military applications.

NEST iON will create a new pilot production line that is expected to be up and running in the coming weeks. It will be located at Kodak’s Energy Storage Hub at the business park.

The CEO of NEST iON, Boris Gragera says among the reasons he wanted to locate operations in this region is because of the availability of a talented workforce and research going on at local universities:

“This is another reason to choose Rochester, because there are a lot of qualified engineers here and it’s important.”

Dan Ocorr is Director of Kodak’s pilot commercialization center. He says the kind of work that Kodak has been doing for years has helped battery companies like NEST-iON thrive at the business park.

“A lot of the new battery technology comes as the modified chemistry in their electrodes and the electrodes are made using roll to roll processes and that is a good fit for Kodak.”

This is a $1.7 million project and Empire State Development will provide a grant of up to $200,000 in return for the company’s investment and the new jobs.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.