S. Windsor manufacturer gets $3.2M state loan

Submitted photo Gov. Malloy announced the loan to Oxford Performance Materials Wednesday at the company's South Windsor headquarters.

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Oxford Performance Materials, which opened an additive manufacturing facility adjacent to its South Windsor headquarters in September, will get a $3.2 million loan from the state to help pay for equipment and building upgrades, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s office announced.

In exchange for the loan, the company has pledged to retain its 24 existing jobs and create 41 more by 2016, officials said. If that pledge is kept, the state will forgive $1 million of the loan.

The 12,000-square-foot facility, which cost $9.5 million, allows Oxford to expand its offerings in additive manufacturing, also known as 3-D printing.

The company has contracts to supply polymer components to NASA and defense contractor Northrop Grumann.

Peter Yazbak, a spokesman for Malloy, said the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development approved the loan in September.

He said the governor chose to delay the announcement because Oxford received the first installment of the financing in October and is still purchasing equipment and wrapping up construction work.

The money comes from the DECD’s Economic and Manufacturing Assistance Act revolving fund.

It’s not the first state assistance Oxford has received.

In 2012, it received $300,000 from the Small Business Express Program that helped it move into a leased facility and double its workforce to 24 people.

In 2011, the state’s quasi-public venture capital arm, Connecticut Innovations, provided $1.2 million in special-debt financing for Oxford to purchase a laser-sintering machine to manufacture medical implants.