Viakable is pouring $55 million into its La Salle manufacturing plant, a project expected to create 50 new full-time jobs and preserve 65 existing ones at the facility that has called the Illinois river town home since 2018. Gov. JB Pritzker traveled to the site to announce the expansion.
The investment will fund a 22,000-square-foot addition to the La Salle plant along with the installation of 17 advanced machines, according to an announcement from Gov. Pritzker’s office. The company also plans to upgrade critical utilities, including installing a new electrical substation, to boost output across wire drawing, cabling, extrusion and packaging. Once complete, the expansion is expected to significantly increase Viakable’s manufacturing capacity for the U.S. electrical infrastructure market, per the same announcement.
Photos from the event, published by Shaw Local, show the governor meeting with Martin Quintanilla, Viakable USA’s director of operations, during the expansion announcement Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. Christy George, president and chief executive officer of the Illinois Economic Development Corporation, was also on hand for the event.
A Trade Mission Pays Off
The expansion traces back to Pritzker’s trade mission to Mexico in the spring of 2025, according to the governor’s office. Viakable is a XIGNUX company and a leading cable manufacturer for the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, and the La Salle plant has operated under that ownership since the company established itself in the town in 2018.
The project is supported through Illinois’ EDGE program, a state tax-incentive tool for business expansion. The governor’s office says that so far in 2026, companies participating in EDGE have committed to creating nearly 6,000 new jobs and more than $2.6 billion in investments statewide. Officials pointed to other manufacturers that have expanded or set up shop in Illinois in recent years, including Voortman Steel Machinery, Ability Engineering Technology and Hyundai Translead.
North Central Illinois’ Manufacturing Draw
La Salle’s appeal to foreign-owned manufacturers isn’t new. The North Central Illinois region already counted 62 foreign-owned manufacturing operations, according to a report from REJournals, which also detailed Xignux’s earlier move into the area when it completed its acquisition of American Bare Conductor in La Salle. That 290,000-square-foot facility became part of Xignux’s Viakable CME Wire & Cable division and was expected to add 100 employees to a workforce of 41.
Wednesday’s $55 million announcement is a separate, newer expansion tied specifically to the 2025 trade mission and the EDGE program, distinct from that earlier acquisition-driven hiring push.
