East Penn Expands

East Penn Manufacturing Co. of Lyon Station, Pennsylvania, will add 500 jobs over three years as part of a $130 million expansion, reports the Morning Call. The company plans to build a 600,000-square-foot plant and distribution center at its 490-acre Lyon Station site. East Penn has begun to clear the site for the plant, which is scheduled to open at the end of 2008. It will receive $21.4 million in loans and grants from the Pennsylvania state Department of Community and Economic Development. Founded in 1946, the company has five plants in Lyon Station, including three manufacturing sites for automotive batteries. It also operates a plant in Kutztown and recently opened one in Iowa, its first outside Berks County.