WASHINGTON – Modula, an international group with an Italian HQ, that manufactures  automated storage and retrieval systems, announced on June 11th at the SelectUSA Conference in Washington, D.C., that it will invest $26.5 million in a new manufacturing and logistics hub at a vacant facility in Franklin, Ohio, where it will create 100 new jobs.

Italian auxiliary equipment manufacturer Moretto SpA has opened its first U.S. operation, in Columbus, Ohio, to handle sales, service and spare parts. Mr. Paolo Gasparotto, business development manager, said the 15,000-square-foot facility opened in October to cover the United States and Canada. Initially, Moretto is employing four people in Columbus, but Gasparotto said the company will add staff as business expands.

Italy's Fiam Utensili Pneumatici SpA recently announced a strategic partnership with Cleveland Ohio-based ASG, naming ASG as the exclusive master distributor for Fiam in North America integrating its brand-name line of industrial air tools into the ASG product offering.