Hardy Diagnostics President: “Our future is in Ohio.”

Topping Greater Cincinnati’s list of recent Life Sciences wins worth celebrating is Hardy Diagnostics. In August 2018, the California-based maker of microbiology testing products broke ground on a Springboro expansion that will double its existing office, manufacturing, and warehousing space by 40,000 square feet.

“Our future growth is going to be in Ohio,” founder and president Jay Hardy told a regional business publication, pointing to the state’s favorable tax structure and low cost of living, as well proximity to sterilization and packaging partners. “The future of health care is very bright from a financial standpoint, so I think that has a lot to do with our consistent growth.”

In 2011, Hardy opened its manufacturing facility in Springboro with just six employees. Now, it houses roughly 80 of Hardy’s 400 nationwide employees, and the company has announced plans to hire another 75-100 locally over the next three years.

This news comes amid an influx of companies migrating to the Midwest from larger markets like Boston, San Francisco, and New York that are notoriously trickier to navigate from cost and proximity standpoints. In addition to those growth factors, Hardy thanked elected officials for helping the company find success locally.

“We have been very pleased doing business from Springboro for the last seven years,” he said. “It’s refreshing to enjoy the effective partnership that we have with our city, county, and state officials. They have been amazingly supportive of our efforts to grow here in Ohio, and their truly ‘business-friendly’ attitude is a breath of fresh air.”

The expansion, which will be completed by the end of 2019, will give the company additional space to develop items used for antibiotic testing, as well as a product designed to detect infections in pregnant women.