MAY 2004
OHIO SPOTLIGHT
Ohio Fights Back
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anada and the United Kingdom have much in common politically. But they have something else in common, too. Companies based in these locations – and plenty of others – have recently announced new operations in Ohio. This will not come as good news to those making hay of the state's job losses in recent years for political reasons, but it is good news nonetheless to those benefiting from the job creation that such announcements presage.
Automodular Corp., a Toronto, Ont.-based supplier to General Motors plants in the U.S. and Canada, announced in March that it will build a 70,000-sq.-ft. (6,500-sq.-m.) plant in Lordstown, Ohio, to supply the GM plant there that is undergoing its own expansion for production of its new Chevrolet Cobalt automobile. Automodular's facility will create 70 to 80 new jobs. And dunnhumby, a British marketing firm specializing in data management and customer analysis, has selected Cincinnati as the headquarters of its new dunnhumby USA unit, adding 100 jobs to that market. It seems both manufacturing and service industries still consider Ohio desirable as a location in which to grow.
But Automodular and dunnhumby are hardly the first non-U.S.-based companies to locate operations in the Buckeye State. They join a long list of such companies, including Honda, BASF Corp., Boehringer Ingelheim, Rodenstock North America and L'Oreal USA. In fact, U.S. subsidiaries employ more than 242,000 Ohio workers, which is nearly 7 percent more than was the case five years ago, according to the Organization for International Investment, a Washington, D.C.-based association of U.S. subsidiaries of international companies. Of that number, 116,900 jobs are in the manufacturing sector.
Such investment is always good news to state economic development officials and to the governor's office, which in any state finds itself in the crosshairs of opponents eager to point out job losses and "outsourcing" statistics. But that has been harder to do in Ohio lately. In February, Governor Bob Taft claimed Site Selection's prestigious Governor's Cup for 2003, which honored Ohio for having the most new and expanded facility announcements that year as tracked by the magazine's proprietary New Plant database (see the March 2004 issue).
Automodular Corp., a Toronto, Ont.-based supplier to General Motors plants in the U.S. and Canada, announced in March that it will build a 70,000-sq.-ft. (6,500-sq.-m.) plant in Lordstown, Ohio, to supply the GM plant there that is undergoing its own expansion for production of its new Chevrolet Cobalt automobile. Automodular's facility will create 70 to 80 new jobs. And dunnhumby, a British marketing firm specializing in data management and customer analysis, has selected Cincinnati as the headquarters of its new dunnhumby USA unit, adding 100 jobs to that market. It seems both manufacturing and service industries still consider Ohio desirable as a location in which to grow.
But Automodular and dunnhumby are hardly the first non-U.S.-based companies to locate operations in the Buckeye State. They join a long list of such companies, including Honda, BASF Corp., Boehringer Ingelheim, Rodenstock North America and L'Oreal USA. In fact, U.S. subsidiaries employ more than 242,000 Ohio workers, which is nearly 7 percent more than was the case five years ago, according to the Organization for International Investment, a Washington, D.C.-based association of U.S. subsidiaries of international companies. Of that number, 116,900 jobs are in the manufacturing sector.
Such investment is always good news to state economic development officials and to the governor's office, which in any state finds itself in the crosshairs of opponents eager to point out job losses and "outsourcing" statistics. But that has been harder to do in Ohio lately. In February, Governor Bob Taft claimed Site Selection's prestigious Governor's Cup for 2003, which honored Ohio for having the most new and expanded facility announcements that year as tracked by the magazine's proprietary New Plant database (see the March 2004 issue).