After a lengthy back-and-forth with Utah's economic development team, an American Fork technology firm announced it would take its new call center -- and the possibility of 325 new jobs -- to Wyoming.
Sento Corp. provides technical services for businesses, including contract technical support, help desk services and technical training.The company negotiated for the better part of a year with Utah's Industrial Assistance Fund team and Carbon County's economic developers to put together an incentives package.
In May, the state approved a $600,000 loan, which Sento rejected. At the time, members of the Board of Business and Economic Development said it was not likely the state would up the ante.
Sento announced it would begin considering other offers.
Tuesday, Sento business development vice president Brian Braithwaite said though the company hoped to keep those jobs in Utah, Wyoming came up with a stronger incentives package.
"Utah met a lot of the requirements we were looking for," he said. "What it finally came down to was the incentives package. That was ultimately the deciding piece because all of the other pieces were comparable.
"Utah's incentives package was simply not as strong as Evanston's."
Braithwaite declined to discuss the specifics of the deal, except to say Sento already has a lease agreement for a building in Evanston.
Industrial Assistance Fund director John Homer said the state put together one of the most lucrative packages ever proposed for rural development.
"What happened was that we worked really hard -- the state and the city of Price -- to bring home that deal to the state of Utah. Had that transaction gone through, it would have been the largest rural funding package ever in the state of Utah. We put a lot on the line to get that deal to Price."
Carbon County Commissioner Mike Milovich said the county put together a competitive package and is disappointed Sento chose another site.
"We put together a terrific package for them," Milovich said. "There were job credits, training, buildings, land. . . . There was about $3 million worth of incentives ready to go. It's a big loss for us in that we had a potential of 300 jobs that could have come here. But we are still ready, willing and able to put an incentives package out there for any high tech company -- or any company -- as long as we have a reasonable assurance of the company's capability to fulfill its end of the agreement."
Braithwaite said the company is experiencing consistent and significant growth, which he expects will continue as more companies elect to outsource their information technology needs. And, although Sento elected to go to Wyoming this time, none of parties involved excluded the possibility they could someday work out a deal.
"We are growing fast enough that our desire is to pursue a new site," Braithwaite said, "and we are very hopeful that it could be here in Utah. As the Internet expands and grows, any type of Web site that is growing will need to have someone out there doing (technical services) for them. That's not their core competency. But it is ours."
The company reported $3.6 million in revenues for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared to $1.5 million the same quarter last year. Sento also reported decreased net losses for the quarter.