One local company is hiring

HOLT CAT, the Caterpillar equipment and engine dealer that serves Central, South North and Northeast Texas, will hire about 100 people including component and manufacturing technicians, weld fabricators and finishers, a quality control specialist, a planning analyst and a section manager as it prepares to open a manufacturing facility in May in Caterpillar's shuttered Waco Work Tools plant, the company announced Tuesday.

HOLT CAT announced in February it was purchasing the plant.

Caterpillar, Inc. announced in February 2018 that it was closing the Work Tools facility on Texas Central Parkway and shift production to a facility in Wamego, Kan., and to external suppliers in a move that affected almost 200 workers.

The plant produced buckets, couplers, and hammers.

HOLT CAT's purchase included107 acres with three buildings with a total of more than 170,000 square feet of manufacturing, warehouse and office space, which the company will repurpose "to meet the needs for HOLT CAT, provide options to better serve customers and growth opportunities for employees," the company said in a press release.