Manufacturing Growing?

I was in Steuben County, IN this week doing the keynote talk for their first annual economic development meeting. This is a new organization that is focused upon creating new opportunities in this most northeast county in the state. It’s led by Gary Nielander, an ED veteran who is enthused with the potential. His organization is supported by the 7 towns in the county, the county government, various chambers, and six local companies.

The county of 34,000 is blessed with over 100 lakes, one of which is the third largest natural lake in the state. There are nine golf courses in the county along with a gorgeous state park that I stayed at. Several of the golf courses are brand new championship caliber ones. The county “has been discovered” by city dwellers within 3 hours of this crossroads community like Detroit, Chicago, Toledo, Ft. Wayne and Indianapolis. Having interstates 80, 90 and 69 all crossing within the county is a huge advantage.

The county has a very strong manufacturing base with 91 different companies, one of the most diversified bases that I’ve seen in a county this size. These manufacturers account for 37% of the jobs in the county and have an average pay of $34,400. The county’s unemployment rate soared to 9.2% in the recession of 2001, but is now down to 5.8% as local companies have expanded.

One local company that announced an expansion at the annual meeting was Vestil Manufacturing Company which moved here in the mid 80s. Entrepreneur and CEO Ralph Trine is starting a $4 million expansion that will add 75 jobs to his base of 200 employees. He is a globally orientated executive with a manufacturing operation in China. But, he is expanding operations in Angola, fully knowing that not all manufacturing is going to move to China. I’m sure that this will come as a surprise to Lou Dobbs and several others in the media who prefer to only look at gloom and doom and not at what a resilient manufacturing base we have in this country.