Over the course of 2025, Connecticut officials committed nearly $25 million in grants to help expand manufacturing, financial services and other companies considered critical to the supply chains supporting the state’s core industries.
Now, officials are preparing to inject another $25 million into Gov. Ned Lamont’s Strategic Supply Chain Initiative, seeking authorization from the state Bond Commission to reallocate bonding authority from previously approved economic development initiatives that did not move forward.
The program offers grants ranging from $500,000 to $5 million to help supply-chain companies purchase equipment, modernize technology, upgrade infrastructure, invest in product or production improvements, or take other steps to expand capacity and create jobs.
Priority industries include manufacturing, semiconductors, insurtech, fintech, biomedical instruments, life sciences, clean energy and information technology.
The grant program launched in January. In May, the Lamont administration announced Farmington-based machine toolmaker TRUMPF as the first recipient. The company, which employs about 500 people in Connecticut, was approved for a $2.5 million grant to increase production capacity and expand manufacturing in the state.
Since then, the state Department of Economic and Community Development has signed 18 additional letters of intent under the program, committing $24.5 million in bonding authorized at an August meeting of the state Bond Commission.
Other announced recipients include:
- AeroBond Composites LLC, an aerospace component manufacturer and subsidiary of WHI Global, is relocating from Springfield, Massachusetts, to a new 78,000-square-foot production facility in Enfield. The $4 million project will receive an $800,000 state grant.
- Shelton-based machining manufacturer Beta Shim, which supplies the aerospace and defense industries, is undertaking a 12,000-square-foot expansion. The $2.5 million project will receive a $500,000 grant.
- Colonial Coatings, a Milford company that provides coating applications for the aerospace, defense and power generation industries, plans to invest $3 million in new equipment to expand production capacity. The project will receive a $500,000 grant.
- Sheffield Pharmaceuticals, a New London manufacturer of prescription and over-the-counter products, is investing $3 million in packaging and mixing systems to expand capacity and product lines. The company will receive an $800,000 grant.
- GKN Aerospace, an international manufacturing company, is adding a production line at its Newington facility and has been approved for a $2.5 million grant.
The state Department of Economic and Community Development plans to announce additional companies that have secured commitments from the first $24.5 million in the coming months.
Those initial commitments are expected to leverage more than $221 million in private capital investment, retain 5,139 jobs and create 538 new positions, according to DECD.
At its Dec. 15 meeting, the State Bond Commission is expected to approve another $25 million in bonding for the Strategic Supply Chain Initiative. The funding would be reallocated from prior bonding authorizations for economic development projects that stalled and did not move forward, according to the bond commission agenda.
The bonding authority slated for reassignment includes:
- $7 million from a $10 million grant approved in 2016 for machinery upgrades at Oxford Performance’s South Windsor plant.
- $2.5 million from a $6 million, 2016 grant to 1st Atlantic Lending for an expansion in Putnam.
- $1 million from a $9 million, 2016 grant to Turbine Technologies Inc. for equipment upgrades.
- $2 million from a $6 million, 2018 grant to MB Aerospace Holdings II Corp. to equip a new headquarters in East Granby.
- $2 million from a 2016 grant intended to incentivize molecular diagnostics company Vermillion Inc.’s move from Austin, Texas, to Trumbull.
- $2.45 million from a 2018 grant to Corsicana Bedding LLC to purchase a new facility in Farmington.
- $3 million from a 2011 grant supporting Blue Sky Studios’ 43,000-square-foot expansion in Greenwich.
- $1.05 million from a $19.1 million loan approved in 2012 to help Sustainable Building Systems LLC outfit a new manufacturing operation in North Haven.
