Traverse City News and Events

What A Difference A Year Makes

Aug. 16, 2010



Several area manufacturers are reporting turnarounds, causing one area business leader to allow words like "rapid growth" and "record numbers" to creep back into his vocabulary.

What a change from last year when one business after another were shuttered: Tower Automotive, Pinnacle Molded Plastics, ACRA Mold & Engineering, Metavation, Kellogg Wholesale Building Supply, for starters.

“You fast forward to 2010 and what we’ve been hearing is that this year is way better than last. Things are looking brighter,” confirms the TC Chamber’s Senior VP of Economic Development Tino Breithaupt. “We’re seeing record numbers through the first number of months. Some are up even 60-80 percent over last year at this time.”

Employment levels are “getting back up to pre-2008 levels,” he says, and there’s an uptick in businesses looking for industrial space. “We’re starting to see plans come off the shelf."

Grand Traverse Container has resurrected plans to connect to the former Olmsted Products building it bought two years ago. Like most businesses at the time, the custom corrugated packaging company was forced into survival mode, laying off a large chunk of its workforce and slashing pay. But now, the company is looking at adding 25 jobs to its staff of 58.

Another example is TC-based automotive supplier Great Lakes Trim. “It’s been a rollercoaster, a near death experience, and they’re up again,” he reports. And automotive parts manufacturer Skilled Manufacturing: “They’ve repositioned themselves to be more diversified (launching a division to serve the aerospace industry)…so, the company is growing – and growing rapidly.”

Terry Berden, who founded Great lakes Stainless in 1995, is the poster boy for diversification, reinvention and risk. Just three years ago, the kitchen fabrication company was focused entirely on stainless steel cooking and serving equipment.

“But the way the economy was going, we thought, ‘how many colleges or restaurants can we remodel?’” recalls Berden, who launched his first company, Grand Traverse Refrigeration, in 1976. “So, we looked to reinvest.”

He invested, to the tune of a million dollars, and expanded into airports and stadiums, even creating 400 stainless steel doors for a 200,000 square-foot medical “clean room.”

Now, inventors are knocking at his door.

Ed O’Keefe, founder and CEO of Chateau Grand Traverse, is one of them. He invented a boxed wine distribution system that, thanks to an airtight pouch, adds 12 months to a wine’s shelf life and allows for portion control. The system is housed in a cabinet on wheels, and Great Lakes Stainless is fabricating the stainless steel for the cabinets.

Then there’s the purification and heating unit local businessman Jerry Sheren invented to save schools 40 percent on their heating bills and to kill bacteria on classroom surfaces. Berden and his team enhanced the product and are crafting the steel housing for the units.

If one or both inventions take off, Berden thinks he can add 10-30 workers over the next couple of years.

The number of manufacturing jobs across the state rose slightly in June to 464,300, according to state officials.

Michigan Manufacturers Association president and CEO Chuck Hadden says companies, including those he spoke with in Traverse City this spring, are proceeding with caution.

“My members tell me, ‘we’re adding hours, but we’re not adding people, and at this point we’re not sure when we will be adding people,’” he says. “I think there’s too much uncertainty with possible new regulations and the elections that they’re holding off hiring until they just can’t afford to any longer.”

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