Whether retaining legacy industry or welcoming new companies, Abilene, Texas, approaches business with sophistication and care.
In west-central Texas, Abilene is thriving and supplying businesses and investors with all the right tools to succeed. Diversifying industry is key to the city’s prospering economy.
“We’re a midsized market with large market capabilities,” says Development Corporation of Abilene (DCOA) President and CEO Misty Mayo. “The ability to compete with large market capabilities keeps us competitive, strengthens our existing legacy industries, and positions us to attract new industries that diversify our community.”
The proof is in the market. All sectors of industry have a strong presence in Abilene. There’s Hartmann’s Inc., a precision machining company that has operated in the city for decades, manufacturing for some of the biggest global companies. Ohio-based Great Lakes Cheese chose Abilene five years ago for its next expansion, significantly growing its supply chain network in the southern United States.
“Our strength in Abilene is our legacy employers and existing businesses,” says Mayo. “We have built strong partnerships with these companies and supported their growth in Abilene. As they succeed, they become valuable assets to our community and help attract future investment. That success creates momentum for future growth. Abilene is truly a growth-oriented community.”
A Mighty Enterprise
Alan Hartmann, CEO and President of Hartmann’s Inc., has made community identity fundamental to the company’s long-standing operations in Abilene. He asks workers based in the company’s Jacksonville, Florida, location to travel to and work at Hartmann’s main facility and get a taste of that industrious Texas spirit that drives so much business in the area.
“What it boils down to is that it’s hardworking people,” says Hartmann when asked what makes Abilene the right place to build and grow a company. “The people that we have working here take a lot of pride in what they do. They are very mindful, and they work hard.”
The roots go deep at Hartmann’s, which got its start after World War II when Alan Hartmann’s grandfather made Abilene home. The company provides services and products for all branches of the United States government, including missile defense and critical components for aircraft flight. Engine components for space flight are also made there and can be found onboard the International Space Station and other high-profile spacecraft.
Hartmann’s is also a Tier 1 supplier of service tools for heavy equipment, engine and automotive manufacturer Cummins Inc., which has operations in 190 countries.
A critical-to-quality supplier for the entire Johnson & Johnson family of companies, Hartmann’s has helped make over 17 billion contact lenses for the company and has made equipment sterilizing nearly every surgical suture made from Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon.
Hartmann credits the DCOA with helping the company expand its building footprint a few years ago when business was rapidly growing.
“The Development Corporation of Abilene is definitely the A Team,” he says. “It takes capital and people to believe in you and push you. I look at businesses just like any other organism — if we are not growing, we are dying. We get pushed to grow.”
Choosing Abilene
When Great Lakes Cheese was looking to add a new manufacturing facility to its network half a decade ago, Great Lakes Cheese CEO and President Bob Sarver says his team was aiming to reduce the miles that dairy product would sit on a truck and minimize supply chain cost, focusing on customer growth from coast to coast in the United States.
“When we got to a place where we needed to make another infrastructure investment for capacity, we looked at where the cheese is being made,” says Sarver, noting that a large amount of the natural cheese they convert into other products and/or package for retailers was being made in Texas and New Mexico. “And where are the customers at? For us, we had a hole in our supply chain network in Texas, so by putting a plant down in the Abilene region, it allowed us to optimize our supply chain and continue to provide value to our customers — many of whom are in the Texas market.”
“We’re a midsized market with large market capabilities. The ability to compete with large market capabilities keeps us competitive, strengthens our existing legacy industries, and positions us to attract new industries that diversify our community.”
— Misty Mayo, President & CEO, Development Corporation of Abilene
The more than 275,000 square foot Abilene facility served the growing consumer base in Texas and checked all the boxes for the company during site selection: existing workforce infrastructure and a genuine willingness to partner from the city and the DCOA in the process of finding the right location, building, launching operations and integrating into the community.
“Even to this day, navigating with community leaders and making connections has been seamless,” says Sarver. “They have been a partner for us, and we couldn’t be happier that we put that site in Abilene.”
Great Lakes Cheese is the largest packager of natural cheese in the United States and works with nearly every major retailer in the country — producing and packing the cheese one can find in almost all grocery stores across the country.
Growing in Texas
Part of the investment Abilene has done as a community is ensuring an abundant talent pipeline, and that starts with education. Texas Tech has a health sciences campus in Abilene with graduate courses and clinical training in pharmacy, public health and nursing.
At Abilene Christian University, NEXT Lab is developing the nation’s first molten salt research reactor, which became the first U.S. university research reactor licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in more than 30 years. Career technical education also begins at the junior high and high school level.
A skilled and educated workforce is one reason why businesses keep investing in Abilene, which has seen over $47 billion in committed capital investment the past six years. Location also helps. As the regional hub for over 19 counties, the city of over 130,000 people is conveniently located a few hours’ drive from Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin, and the Abilene Regional Airport has daily non-stop flights to Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Phoenix and Houston. The city is also served by Interstate 20 and Highways 83, 84 and 277, connecting it to all parts of Texas and beyond.
This Investment Profile was prepared under the auspices of the Development Corporation of Abilene. For more information, please contact DCOA@DevelopAbilene.com.
