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by JACK LYNE, Site Selection Executive Editor of Interactive Publishing
WOODBURN, Ore. – Supreme Industries is moving in to Woodburn, Ore., to capitalize on an expansion opportunity that was created by one of the area businesses that have been moving the other way - moving out.
The Goshen, Ind.-based truck-body manufacturer has purchased a vacant 108,000-sq.-ft. (9,720-sq.-m.) plant on a 13-acre (five-hectare) site in Woodburn. Supreme Industries plans to hire 120 workers at that location, where they'll produce truck bodies and attach them to vehicles' chassis. The operation will be the company's first in the U.S. Northwest.
The facility initially became vacant in early 2001, with the closing of the local Silvercrest plant. That shutdown, which laid off 191 workers, ended almost 30 years of Woodburn operations for the company, a maker of manufactured homes. Still owned by Silvercrest, the facility had stood vacant since.
The two companies released no details of the sale to Supreme Industries. Binswanger/CBB, which represented the seller, described the transaction as a move "to more properly align Silvercrest's manufacturing requirements with the demand in various areas of the country."
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Supreme Industries, in contrast, saw Woodburn, a city of some 20,000 residents 32 miles (51 kilometers) south of Portland, as the answer in meeting its Northwest demand.
Seattle is the company's largest market in the region, said Mike Oium, who manages Supreme's western operations. And setting up in Woodburn, just off Interstate 5, positions the company to serve not only Seattle, but also Portland, San Francisco and Vancouver, Canada, as well. Supreme had heretofore served the Northwest from one of its plants in California's Moreno Valley, east of Los Angeles.
Rapidly Get It Up and Running
Total retrofit costs will be about $200,000, said Oium. The state agreed to pony up half of that amount. Those funds are coming through the $100,000 that Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) has committed from state strategic reserve funds; the governor has the option of tapping those funds to boost economic development.
The Woodburn plant will be Supreme's first new manufacturing plant since 1995. The Oregon project's timing, Oium explained, is designed to dovetail with the slow but steady upsurge of the U.S. economy.
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The Supreme plant comes as a welcome counterpoint in northern Oregon, where many companies have been cutting back. One of the biggest recent losses was registered in Salem, where Sumitomo Mitsubishi Silicon Corporation announced late last year that it was shutting down its 620-employee silicon wafer manufacturing
Expand HQ on Toyota's Vacated Site
The Portland situation, however, is quite different. The company that's leaving is Toyota, and it's departing only to expand and improve operations.
The property in question is the 32-acre (13-hectare) site that the Port of Portland Commission currently leases to Toyota Logistics Services. Toyota expects to vacate the industrially zoned site by January of 2005, relocating its auto processing operation to new facilities it's constructing on the Port's Terminal 4 waterfront. (For more details, see our earlier Oct. 12, 2002, report, "Portland Project Highlights Toyota's Green Commitment.")
Eager to revitalize the site that Toyota will be leaving, the Port Commission has approved the sale of nine acres (3.6 hectares) of the property to Mt. Hood Chemical Corporation. (Commissioners decided to sell Toyota's leased site because the Port no longer considers the property strategic for its marine operations.)
"Toyota's relocation gives the Port the opportunity to redevelop the area above Terminal 4 for companies like Mt. Hood Chemical that are committed to our community and that need space to grow and continue to provide jobs," said Port Business Development Director Carl Warren. "Selling it keeps an Oregon-based company in the state. It also supports the Port's ongoing efforts with other local and state authorities to support business expansion here in Portland and elsewhere in Oregon."
Mt. Hood Headquartered in Oregon
Without the Port site, the company would've seriously considered relocating and expanding elsewhere, including out of state, President Tom Mulflur said.
"We're an Oregon company and we've been headquartered in Portland for more than a century," Mulflur explained. "However, there aren't a lot of nearby North and Northwest Portland sites available for building new warehousing and distribution facilities. So we were pleased when we learned the property above Terminal 4 would be coming available in 2005."
The specialty cleaning products company will build a new 90,000-sq.-ft. (8,100-sq.-m.) headquarters on the Port property. That facility will replace Mt. Hood Chemical's existing 53,000-square-foot (4,770-sq.-m.) operation in Northwest Portland.
Additional workers will be hired to staff the larger headquarters, Mulflur said. But he didn't project how many new jobs would be created.
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More Capacity at Maine Operation
by JACK LYNE, Site Selection Executive Editor of Interactive Publishing
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine – National Semiconductor is beginning to enjoy the up side of the classic boom-or-bust cycle indigenous to its business line: The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company is adding 100 employees and making a $58-million investment in its facility in South Portland, Maine.
Bullish business has National's Maine operation fairly busting at the seams. The South Portland operation is currently running at 100-percent capacity during every stage of its 24/7 operations, said National Semiconductor Vice President Paul Edmonds, who is managing director of the South Portland facility.
"We are very pleased to be expanding our operations," Edmonds explained. "Business, particularly our analog business, has been improving steadily, and we have reached a point where additional equipment and capital investment are required to meet increasing demand."
National specializes in analog technology that sharpens color and brightness and improves sound quality. The expansion, Edmonds said, will increase capacity by 25 percent at the facility, which focuses on design, advanced process wafer-fab manufacturing, and testing.
The company's Maine expansion is part of what seems to be a budding upswing for the larger U.S. semiconductor industry. Technology bellwether Intel, for example, recently announced a 22-percent increase in its fourth-quarter 2003 revenues, finishing with $8.74 billion.
Operation Has Topped $1 Billion Since 1995
"National Semiconductor has been an important business partner in Maine," stated Governor John Baldacci (D). "They have steadily increased operations over the years and worked tirelessly with the city and state to improve the area business climate.
"Since 1995," Baldacci added, "the company has invested over $1 billion."
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National's latest investment more than doubles the $25 million it spent last year for equipment and facilities upgrades in South Portland.
National's $58-million investment, however, won't be going for new work space. The company's existing local facilities have enough room to accommodate the expansion, Edmonds said.
Instead, National's South Portland expenditures will be for chip-making machinery. Individual chip-making tools alone cost anywhere from $800,000 to $4 million, Edmonds said.
BETR reimburses companies for the local taxes that they've already paid on equipment purchases.
But National won't be spending as much on equipment as it might have. It's buying used equipment that was previously utilized in U.S. fabs that closed during the semiconductor industry's most recent downturn. Purchasing used equipment will cut National's South Portland expansion expenditures by half, Edmonds said.
The "buy-used" tactic is part of National's strategy to ensure that its U.S. operations remain competitive with low-cost chip operations in Asia. Another key element in that competitiveness strategy is high-end automation, which is already a major feature in the South Portland operation.
"We are proud of our site's ability to stay competitive in the global manufacturing market due to our high level of automation and very productive manufacturing work force," said Edmonds.
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by JACK LYNE, Site Selection
Executive Editor of Interactive Publishing
GREENVILLE, Mich. – Michigan clearly fought the good – fierce, actually, is more accurate – fight. But in the end, the lure of much cheaper labor was far too big an obstacle to overcome. Electrolux, the world's biggest white goods maker, is closing its 2,700-employee plant in Greenville, Mich., and relocating it to Mexico, building a $150-million plant at an as-yet undisclosed location.
The news, though, was in no way a surprise. Last October, Electrolux's Board of Directors in its nine-month annual report announced that the company was "evaluating" the refrigerator plant in Greenville, a small western Michigan town located 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Grand Rapids.
"The plant has weak financial performance," Electrolux said, "and other production sources are being considered, including a move to Mexico."
That, though, was before a very determined group of local, state and federal officials formed the Electrolux Task Force.
The task force's mission was simple: find ways to persuade the Swedish company to remain in Greenville.
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"It's us as a community putting our foot down and saying we won't lose any more manufacturing jobs to Mexico or China," said Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D), a prominent member of the Electrolux Task Force.
Other state incentives followed, rapidly swelling the total package of subsidies to $121 million. In addition, Michigan offered to create a Renaissance Zone around the plant; that designation would've allowed Electrolux to operate virtually free of state and local taxes for up to 20 years.
The United Auto Workers also got involved in the uphill retention effort. UAW officials huddled with Electrolux management and offered changes in the union's existing labor agreement. Those proposed contract modifications (which weren't publicly disclosed) would've saved the company $31.6 million a year at the Greenville plant, according Don Oetman, director of the UAW's Region 1D (which includes west Michigan).
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Also stepping up for the state was perhaps Greenville's most famous native son: 82-year-old Fred Meijer. Meijer is founder and chairman emeritus of Meijer Inc., a family-owned grocery and general merchandise retailer with a large, four-state Midwest network. He was born in Greenville, and now lives in Grand Rapids, where his company is headquartered.
After hearing of his hometown's plight, Meijer wrote a personal check for $25,000 to aid the city's retention effort. The prominent retailer also offered Greenville unlimited free use of his company's airplane.
In addition, the city and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. each ponied up $12,000 apiece to hire a consultant to aid in the retention effort.
The media-savvy task force issued a statement after all the retention aid had been lined up. The collective assistance that had been amassed, it asserted, "puts forth meaningful and systemic remedies that substantially meet the requirements established for us by Electrolux North America."
By then, the retention alliance had turned the heat up very high. High enough, in fact, that Electrolux hesitated at the switch. It postponed for a week the final verdict on Greenville, initially set for Jan. 9.
"This is such a significant decision that we want to be sure that we have done the evaluation as thoroughly as we possibly can," an Electrolux spokesman said in explaining the rescheduling.
But that, it turned out, only postponed what apparently was already inevitable. The plant was going south, Electrolux Home Products North America President and Chief Executive Keith McLoughlin announced.
"Unfortunately" McLoughlin explained, "we face significant competitive challenges in today's global economy. Most notably, all of our major competitors have located, or announced that they soon will locate, production facilities in Mexico putting us at a large cost disadvantage."
On the other hand, the relocated Mexican plant's costs will be dramatically lower. Electrolux officials, in fact, estimated that the move will save the company $81 million a year.
Labor costs will deliver most of those savings. Greenville workers are making $13 to $15 an hour. Mexican workers will make about $2 an hour.
"Electrolux's decision today is heart-wrenching news for Greenville and Michigan," Granholm said after the relocation was finalized. "I could not be more disappointed that the company ultimately chose cheap, foreign wages over a highly skilled American work force with fair wages and quality health care."
But Granholm maintained, "This not a knockout punch. The people of Greenville have long demonstrated that their community is a great home for industry, and the state is committed to helping the community."
The governor immediately directed state agencies to begin "to work together to strategize new job development tactics for the city and to help Electrolux employees find new employment as quickly as possible."
The Greenville plant won't close until some time in 2005, Electrolux officials said. The Mexican plant will build a new refrigerator, they added.
So, too, would've the Greenville operation - at least if it had remained open.
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©2003 Conway Data, Inc. All rights reserved. Data is from many sources and is not warranted to be accurate or current.