Scott Stevens, left, and Christina Hoxsie, software engineers at American Power Conversion, work in the software development lab at the South Kingstown plant.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

SOUTH KINGSTOWN –– After looking into other possible locations for the company’s headquarters, American Power Conversion has decided there’s no place like home.

Laurent Vernerey, APC’s president and chief executive officer, announced yesterday that the $3.5-billion company will keep its corporate headquarters at its present location on Fairgrounds Road.

APC makes equipment for large corporations and for consumers that ensures computers stay running, even if the power goes out. The company also makes cooling equipment used to keep computer servers from overheating.

He said that after Schneider Electric purchased APC last year, the company began to investigate whether it made sense to move, he said.

One reason APC considered moving was that the Fairgrounds Road facility was built mainly as a manufacturing plant. Since then, the company has moved almost all its manufacturing elsewhere, leaving it with a large warehouse-like space.

Instead of moving, Vernerey said the company will convert the manufacturing space into something more suitable.

“After looking at all of our alternatives, we have decided to make a $3-million to $4-million investment in this facility, here, to make it a greater place to work,” Vernerey said at APC’s headquarters yesterday.

Besides redesigning the building’s interior, Vernerey said, some investment will go toward making the building more energy efficient.

The improvements will be made over the next six to eight months, he said.

There are 1,100 employees at the facility. Most work in corporate support positions, software engineering, research and development, and sales and marketing, Vernerey said.

“Our employees have been waiting for this decision of mine for a while,” he said. “I think for the state of Rhode Island, it’s important you know we will continue to invest.”

The announcement came during a visit to the company by a U.S. Department of Commerce official, who is touring various states to call attention to the benefits of foreign investments made in the United States.

Rear Adm. William G. Sutton, the Commerce Department’s assistant secretary for manufacturing services, said his visit was part of an initiative launched last year by the agency to support state government promotion efforts to encourage more foreign investments. The campaign is also intended to provide “a single point of contact at the federal level to help foreign investors work through the difficulties they may encounter with the federal bureaucracies or they may encounter with various regulatory matters,” he said.

Sutton said that free trade and foreign investment “are critical to U.S. growth and prosperity.”

“This source of foreign capital stimulates the economy, drives competitiveness and helps create good-paying, quality jobs here at home,” he said. “Fully 20 percent of our manufacturing jobs throughout the country are dependent on foreign direct investment.”

APC is one of several Rhode Island companies that are owned by foreign corporations. France-based Schneider Electric SA bought the South Kingstown company in a transaction valued at $6.1 billion in February of last year.

Subsidiaries of foreign companies employ 22,900 Rhode Islanders, an increase of 3.2 percent over five years, according to the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. Those workers represent about 5.3 percent of the state’s private-sector workforce, EDC said. Rhode Island ranks 11th in the country in percentage of workforce supported by U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies.

Other foreign companies that have operations in Rhode Island include Brown and Sharpe Machine Tools (Sweden), Cookson Group Electronics (United Kingdom), GTECH (Italy), National Grid (United Kingdom), Toray Industries Plastics (Japan) and Uvex Safety Manufacturing Protective Gear (Germany).Foreign investment in Rhode Island

Source: Organization for International Investment

tbarmann@projo.com