The old Copeland Corp. plant site in Hartselle is being acquired by an automotive supplier.

BUSCHE finalized negotiations today with CR Compressors LLC, a company in Emerson Electric’s Emerson Climate Technologies business segment, for the large manufacturing complex that includes a 263,000-square-foot building located on 48 acres.

Formerly known as Copeland Corp., Emerson Climate Technologies announced at two separate times last year that it was permanently eliminating 500 jobs.

The plant made components for air conditioning systems. The plant apparently will retain employees to continue doing that work while adding automotive goods manufacturing. The plant has gone from employing more than 1,000 workers to about 50.

Busche purchased the complex, and will do value added long-term machining contract work at the facility.

The purchase positions Busche with northern and southern sites for its customers. The Alabama location is close to several suppliers of intricate raw castings and forgings requiring the complex machining capabilities Busche provides. The new location will allow Busche to offer a more competitive answer to growing freight costs.

Greg Canfield, secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce, thanked the company for its decision to locate in Alabama and said that he was proud that the Department of Commerce could play a role in assisting the company.

Busche specializes in the machining of intricate castings and forgings for the automobile, construction, agricultural, medium duty truck industries and a wide variety of other industries.

Read Tuesday's editions for more details.