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Auglaize & Mercer Counties |
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Auglaize & Mercer Counties |
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The days of mule-drawn barges and canal shipping are long gone, but what remains is the spirit of cooperation between the two counties.
In a typical situation, two adjacent counties, especially ones with fiercely competing high school football teams, might be at each other's throats over economic development. No so with the west central Ohio counties of Auglaize and Mercer. They share not only a geographical landmark -- the world's second largest man-made lake -- but also a common vision in all things having to do with economic development. What that means for industry looking at the area is availability of complementary resources. If one county is not quite a perfect fit, the other probably is. Besides the lake, there are other links as well. The counties share a common road system -- the four-laned state route 29 and U.S. 33, which leads to I-75. The counties operate a joint convention and visitors bureau to promote tourism and tourism investment opportunities on Grand Lake St. Mary's, a quality of life attraction and a major draw for industry. The commissioners of both counties have worked on an extensive river clean-out program which stretches all the way from St. Mary's to the Indiana line. The two counties are also working closely together to alleviate shortages of skilled and semi-skilled employees. They are developing a joint Pre-Employment Training Program, which has been so successful elsewhere in the U.S. The counties share the broad services of Wright State University's North Branch. Mercer and Auglaize share education accolades, as well. Both have exceptional school systems and both always rank in the top 20 in Ohio in academics. Eighty percent of athletes are honor roll students. The counties long ago figured out that what's good for one county is good for the other. Take Huffy Bicycle for example, which operates the world's largest bicycle plant (one million sq. ft.) in Celina (Mercer County). A third of the company's 1,200 employees come from Auglaize County. Likewise, major employers in Auglaize County draw from Mercer. When AGCO, a maker of agricultural machinery, was about to leave Mercer County because of a spat with the owner of its leased building, it was 72,000 letters from the citizens of both Mercer and Auglaize counties that helped convince the company to change its mind. Not only did AGCO keep the 600 jobs in Coldwater (Mercer County), it also upped the work force by an additional 200 jobs. Both counties have attracted international companies. A French company, Besnier-Scerma, USA, markets casein, a dairy by-product, from Auglaize County. CAPT, a Japanese auto parts producer, opened its plant two years ago in Mercer County and is already expanding. It is one of five Japanese companies in the two counties. Canadian rice cake maker, Basic Grains, recently located in Mercer County. Dannon, a French firm, runs the world's largest yogurt plant in Auglaize County. De Ruijter International USA, a Dutch rubber broker and processor, arrived recently in Mercer County. The success in attracting international companies relies on two more mutual themes. One is the ability to accomplish things quickly. |
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"Our new industries can't believe they don't have to go to 16 government agencies to get something done," says Larry Stelzer, economic development director for Mercer County. "If you have the right people in place to do the job, you can get things done quickly," adds Kurt Kuffner, administrator of Auglaize County. |
This is particularly important for foreign firms. Says Ken Aleong, president of Basic Grains, who located his rice cake manufacturing operation in an available building in Mercer County: "We found a one-stop shop. In other states we looked at there were two or more levels of government to deal with. This is very important for a company coming from thousands of miles away because we didn't know the landscape and we didn't have any contacts."
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The second commonality impressing Auglaize-Mercer industry is the area's work ethic. Aleong says the work force he put together from applicants in the two counties helped him increase productivity by 30-40 percent.
Huffy executives cite the work ethic, honesty and high literacy level of their work force. Reynolds and Reynolds executives, who run the company's largest automotive forms printing plant in Mercer County, like the way workers adapted to streamlined manufacturing processes, as well as helping the company improve customer service and time to market. |
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| This year St. Marys, in Auglaize County, was the only community where two suppliers received awards from Honda for productivity and quality. "This sends a very strong message regarding the work ethic and the quality of people in this area," says Tim Garrett, a Honda executive. |
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In transportation, Mercer and Auglaize share the services of the RJ Corman shortline, as well as Corman's new $5 million multimodal distribution center on State Route 29. Rail is important to industry in the area -- to Precision Strip, a steel slitter in Minster; to Cooper which processes 70,000 turkeys a day; and to plastic products makers, like VersaPak, which saves a cent and a half a pound over trucking by shipping in pellets on rail. Corman operates the former Norfolk Southern line that was to be abandoned, hooking into three Class I carriers in Lima.
Success in prospecting for new industry is about equal in the two counties. Within the last year Auglaize has added Amcast and Nakano USA, an Osaka-based supplier to Huffy, which will build a new facility in St. Marys in 1998. Crown Equipment Corp., Auglaize's largest employer, continues its expansion program, as does AAP St. Mary's, which makes cast aluminum wheels. Owned by Hitachi Metals, AAP St. Mary's came to Auglaize in 1987. Now approaching production of eight million wheels, the company sends nearly two-thirds of its output to Ford.
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In Mercer County, Huffy Bicycle, which is currently making record shipments, just added over 100 people. Maverick Enterprises, a new steel slitting operation, will use the RJ Corman rail line, as well as its distribution center. |
