Manufacturing
Sketches Its Profile

In December 2002, the Maryland Advisory Commission on Manufacturing Competitiveness (MACMC), drawing on input from more than 120 firms throughout the state, issued a report outlining 10 recommendations to expand and strengthen the manufacturing base in the state. Among them were several touching on work-force development funding and promotion, others devoted to infrastructure needs in both information technology and transportation, and still others devoted to a more collaborative model for both attracting and keeping companies, and for regulating them once they're there.
        The new team in Maryland will be focusing more on business retention than new attraction, and it will also focus on areas outside the traditional big jurisdictions, with more attention paid to the Eastern Shore and the sliver of western territory known for its beautiful recreational areas. There is also a renewed energy behind efforts to boost small and minority businesses, with talk of building "an infrastructure for entrepreneurship."
        Evidence of that push is already hitting Caroline County on the Eastern Shore. With the help of the state's One Maryland financing program, the 120-acre (48.6-hectare) Federalsburg Industrial Park is undergoing a US$1.3-million expansion, adding 50 acres (20.2 hectares) for six new lots. One Maryland, designed to help distressed communities, is available in only seven jurisdictions: Baltimore City, Allegany, Caroline, Dorchester, Garrett, Somerset and Worcester counties. ShoreGood Water Company, Inc. will become the first new tenant in that expanded territory, with plans to open a 20,000-sq.-ft. (1,858-sq.-m.) purified water manufacturing and bottling operation in March 2003, employing 25 people at the outset. After looking at several locations around the DelMarVa peninsula, ShoreGood President Dennis Kellough and COO Jeff Johnson chose the Federalsburg site for their $2.5-million investment, not least because of the interest and help offered by the town of Federalsburg and the Caroline Economic Development Corp.
        "I definitely think the business climate is improving," says Johnson. "The towns and counties have started to take it on as their own responsibility to draw people in, not relying solely on things the state is doing. But the state has helped with a lot of cooperative learning efforts. The Upper Shore Business and Manufacturing Association at Chesapeake College is a great resource to contact other businesses."
        Johnson says that startup ShoreGood is building a new facility in part because existing buildings in Maryland and Delaware would have required substantial capital outlay to bring them up to FDA standards. He says that the Eastern Shore has never had a strong manufacturing base, but admits to some puzzlement as to why it's difficult to attract people.
        "It's a beautiful location, there are land resources and a high-quality work force available. When you come, you're welcomed with open arms, not like you're in a high industry area where you're just another blip on the radar screen. It was interesting to see that really come to light during our search. We saw that it's not just talk - they really have put their money where their mouth is. It's a shame the Eastern Shore doesn't have a better reputation for manufacturing. We can't think of any place else we'd rather be."
        Elsewhere on the Eastern Shore, Millville, N.J.-based Silverton Marine Corp. is establishing a parts manufacturing operation in a 66,000-sq.-ft. (6,131-sq.-m.) building in Salisbury's Northwood Industrial Park that will employ 175. Silverton is part of the Luhrs Marine Group, one of the largest independently owned powerboat, sailboat, and sport fishing boat builders in the United States. Silverton officials discovered the Salisbury property while searching the Internet for mid-Atlantic sites.
        Elsewhere in Salisbury, plastic film firm VPI/Mirrex is spending $15 million on a 20,000-sq.-ft. (1,858-sq.-m.) expansion that will create 20 new jobs and triple the plant's capacity for calendering, the process for creating rolls of thin, flexible colored plastic film. That product is than used by other manufacturers in making solid color decals and laminate wood grain consumer products. Over the past decade, VPI has grown from three facilities in Wisconsin to six nationwide, including Maryland and Delaware.