New Barberton business: Eurofins, Planet Fitness and WellNow locations come to city
Three new businesses are bringing dozens of jobs to Barberton, including one that currently employs more than 100 people.
That operation, an environmental testing facility called Eurofins, recently held an open house at its 50,000-square-foot facility. The location is a former industrial building on South Van Buren Avenue, said Barberton Mayor William Judge in a recent email.
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"They purchased one of the former B&W buildings and brought their operations here to town," Judge said, calling the laboratory a "big win" for the city.
The company purchased the building in October 2021 and moved from its North Canton location, bringing 114 jobs. It is part of Eurofins' network of more than 900 laboratories in 50 countries and is based in Luxembourg.
The company has another lab in Strongsville and four service center locations in central and southern Ohio. According to an email from a company publicist, it employs 58,000 people worldwide and provides testing for "environmental, pharmaceutical, food and consumer products markets as well as directly to industry and government agencies."
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Paul A. Wise, president of Eurofins Environment Testing North Central, said in an email Wednesday that the Barberton site is strategically positioned for regional customer access and skilled employees. He called the environmental testing lab on South Van Buren "state of the art."
"The location is ideal for serving our regional and national clientele given its proximity to major interstate corridors and scientific talent in the Akron/Cleveland metro areas,” he said.
Judge said the city is working with Eurofins to integrate it into the Barberton community and helping establish connections with the Barberton City School District.
Planet Fitness at Magic City Plaza
New Hampshire-based Planet Fitness will open a location in a revitalized Magic City Plaza, which added a Marc's grocery store in June to replace a Kmart location.
A Planet Fitness spokesperson said the company is targeting a late December opening for the 19,220-square-foot location and plans to open more fitness centers in the Akron area.
"Barberton is an underserved health and wellness community," the spokesperson said via email. "We will be bringing affordable fitness to the area as well as 3-4 more new sites in the greater Cleveland, Akron area within the next few years."
The company has about 16.6 million members, adding customers despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced an estimated 25% of health and fitness centers in the industry to close, the spokesperson said. Planet Fitness's current membership exceeds pre-pandemic levels.
In the Akron area, Planet Fitness currently has locations in Stow, Tallmadge, Akron and Wadsworth.
WellNow Urgent Care
Urgent care giant WellNow opened a location in mid-November on 5th Street Southeast, near the Giant Eagle supermarket.
The location provides traditional urgent care services with shorter waiting times than emergency rooms, WellNow President John Radford said in a prepared news release.
The company operates more than 200 urgent care centers in seven states and is planning to open a Cuyahoga Falls location.
More:Urgent care center coming to site of former Family Video location in Cuyahoga Falls
That site, a 3,500-square-foot building that housed one of the last Family Video stores, is expected to open early next year.
Leave a message for Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at aashworth@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: New to Barberton: Eurofins, Planet Fitness and WellNow come to city
