Kosciusko County’s Economic Standing
WARSAW — Kosciusko County Economic Development Corporation President George Robertson came before the Kosciusko County Council Thursday, April 14, to talk of where Kosciusko County stands economically.
Robertson said it was an excellent year last year. The county had 850 new manufacturing jobs and $63 million in new capital investment. He said the year ended “just shy” of 40,000 people employed in the county. “That’s the highest number of people working, going to work every day in Kosciusko County, in our county’s history.”
In 2010 Robertson said there were 33,000 people employed in the county and “we’ve made a lot of progress.”
“We see this year, after two great years, as a little bit slower,” Robertson told the council. He stated there were a number of companies looking at expansion, but the companies have a “fear factor.”
Robertson said, “corporate America,” makes the decisions on where new plants and major expansions will locate. “They look at Europe, they see it imploding, they look at the Chinese economy, they see it not rebounding that strongly and then they look at our presidential election and go, ‘Oh my goodness.’ We don’t know what’s going to happen this year.” Robertson went on to say, “When corporate people don’t know what’s happening, they go on hold.”
Robertson said of the companies looking to expand to Kosciusko County, “We keep working with them and moving forward.” Robertson doesn’t believe the county is losing jobs or losing operations.
Robertson talked of two companies that expanded into Kosciusko County: Owl Manor Medical LLC and Texmo Precision Castings Inc., an orthopedic manufacturer.
Owl Manor acquired rights to a Biomet technology years ago for the animal field. Zimmer Biomet has rights to the human use of the product, but the technology for animals belongs to Owl Manor. Robertson said Owl Manor started with horses. “Basically, the horse limps in, they take some blood from the horse and it’s put in a centrifuge that takes out exactly the right platelets, they inject those into the horse and the horse walks out.” This is a regenerative medical technology to treat joint, soft tissue and wound-related conditions.
Owl Manor is hoping to tackle the “dog market” this year, according to Robertson. “The horse market is big, the dog market is huge.” A dog starting to limp, maybe getting arthritis; a beloved pet, “I don’t care what the vet charges, we’re going to get that shot.”
Robertson said Owl Manor is a strong growth company and, “we’re happy to have them.”
Texmo purchased Medcast, a company that goes back three generations to England making water pumps, which is why they got into the casting business, Robertson stated. He said Texmo has a huge manufacturing presence in India making small castings.
Robertson said Texmo is working with Ivy Tech to start training programs because the company will be hiring 25 new people. Texmo has contracts with multi-international companies in agriculture equipment and aerospace.
Roberston said the workforce of the county is hurting for machinists. “We have companies that have 10-12 openings but can’t fill them, so we’re developing machinist pipelines.” Robertson says there are 24 seniors from high school going to the Career Center to learn to become machinists.
Robertson said it was important to train people to become skilled labor because without skilled labor companies will not be interested in expanding to the county.