Pilot Pen Moving Headquarters to Jacksonville

Jacksonville Business Journal reports that Pilot Pen Corp. of America is relocating its U.S. headquarters from Trumbull, Conn. to Jacksonville, bringing with it 66 jobs and $7.5 million in initial capital investments.

The pen maker has manufactured and distributed its products from a 275,000-square-foot facility in the East Park Business Center at St. Johns Bluff Road and Beach Boulevard since the mid-1990s and already owns the land where the new 50,000-square-foot adjacent headquarters will be.

The tax incentive package for moving the headquarters was approved by the Jacksonville City Council in June under the name “Project Grip” after more than a year of negotiations.

“A headquarters is the most important target that we have,” said Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Jerry Mallot of that agency’s efforts bring the company to Jacksonville. “It’s the top prize, as it were, in the economic development process.”

Company headquarters not only tend to have higher paying jobs, Mallot said, but it also has an impact on local investment and future decision making.

The Tokyo-based parent company also has subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Brazil and Russia.