A Missouri-based maker of welded chain products will open a manufacturing plant at Ceres Research and Industrial Interplex in the fourth quarter this year and start full production of heavy-duty chains within a year, its top executive said.

Laclede Chain Manufacturing Company LLC, which in August purchased the former Yorozu Automotive Mississippi building at the Flowers industrial park, plans to employ 42 clerical and technical employees at the 92,178-square-foot facility, CEO Jim Riley said in a telephone interview days before the company was to start informing its Southeast customer base this week.

The plant will supplement the company’s headquarters in Fenton, Mo., and its tire chain division in Vancouver, Wash., and represents the first major industry to locate at Ceres since Yorozu closed in 2008. The company’s product lines range from tire traction chains for cars, trucks and buses to smaller accessories such as rope clips and grab hooks.

Riley said the choice to locate in Warren County — absent any financial incentives or tax breaks from the county or the state — was a combination of a ready-made building and easy access to a mega-busy truck route on Interstate 20.

“We wanted to have our manufacturing close to our customers in the southeast United States,” Riley said. “There are very little upgrades needed on the building. There’s plenty of available labor — people with mechanical aptitude that should come work for us.”

Interviews for positions at the new plant are expected to begin this week at the Vicksburg WIN Job Center on Monroe Street, where Riley referred all employment inquiries. Salaries were to be “competitive,” Riley said, but didn’t specify.

Landing the company was the result of a 2 1/2-year courtship, Warren County Port Commission executive director Wayne Mansfield said.

“It’s big for jobs,” Mansfield said. “They’re financially stable. They’ve come here without any incentives and want to hire and deal locally. It’s been their emphasis since day one.”

Unemployment in Warren County was 11 percent in August and has been mired in double digits for the past 11 months. Yorozu and auto parts supply compatriot CalsonicKansei, which closed in 2006, had employed more than 550 people shortly after each opened in 2002-03. Simpson Dura-Vent, a third high-profile industrial recruit to Ceres in the late 1990s, had employed about 400 at peak production, before the home venting maker closed the plant at the start of the housing market crash and recession.

Laclede purchased the former Yorozu building from businessmen Pete Buford and Harold M. May for an undisclosed sum. The company was offered economic development bonds from the state, but “chose to finance the building a different way” that speeded the timing of the deal, Riley said.

Continuing to operate at Ceres are Tyson Foods, Vicksburg Metal Products, Magnolia Metal & Plastic, a Mississippi Department of Transportation regional headquarters and the Mississippi National Guard.

Riley purchased the company in April 2010 along with longtime general manager Steve Heuett and Kansas City-based C3 Capital Partners, according to its website. Laclede takes its name from Laclede Steel Company, of St. Louis, which purchased the firm in 1984, the site said.