Firms Find Advantages in Tenn.’s Rural Communities
Published Apr 08, 2001
Representatives of Seymour Tubing Inc. got a feel for Dunlap, Tenn., by visiting the local Chevrolet dealership. Here, production manager Bo Smith, quality manager Tom Guza, Sequatchie County Executive Arthur Tollett, plant manager Kengo Murata and administration manager Barry Ferguson check out a 1932 Chevrolet Deluxe Roadster.
When company officials at Seymour Tubing Inc. arrived in Dunlap to consider the community as the site of a new manufacturing operation, local officials were ready with tours planned of their industrial park, local schools and the golf course. But Seymour Tubing representatives had something else in mind.
“They wanted to walk the streets of downtown Dunlap and talk to the average person,” recalls Sequatchie County Executive Arthur Tollett. Thus, the entourage enjoyed an impromptu stroll through the courthouse and City Hall, the local Chevrolet dealership, and a community park. “We got back to the office, and the man said, ‘We want to be a major player in a small community. We want to be part of the community. We want to provide the trophies for the bowling leagues. We just like the small-town atmosphere, where we can get good employees who will stay with us.’ ”
Evidently, the company’s decision makers liked what they saw and heard: Seymour Tubing – which manufactures steel tubes used in power steering, shock absorbers, exhaust systems, air bags and other automotive components – broke ground in October on a new facility in the Sequatchie Valley Industrial/Commercial Park and begins production this summer.
Seymour Tubing’s decision is indicative of a growing trend in industrial site selection. Corporations, particularly when siting manufacturing facilities, are looking beyond metropolitan and suburban areas, preferring the open spaces and available workers in rural settings. Tennessee offers many such prime locations, says Tony Grande, deputy commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development.
“One of the trends that we’re seeing is companies that are interested in being a bigger fish in a smaller pond,” Grande says. “They know that they’re going to get attention, demand respect, and have an available workforce at their fingertips.”
Another example is DTR Tennessee Inc., a Japanese company that recently set up shop in Claiborne County in East Tennessee. The company’s new 80,000-square-foot facility will initially employ about 120 workers when production begins at the end of the year. The company molds plastic and rubber anti-vibration components, such as motor mounts. Three expansion phases planned over the next five years will increase the size of DTR’s Claiborne County facility to 320,000 square feet and may eventually require as many as 500 employees.
This rural location strategy has been embraced, in particular, by Japanese-owned operations in the automotive-components business, Grande notes. Another example is Toyo Seat USA, which recently made a $12 million investment in Grundy County. In April, the manufacturer of automotive seat frames and seat mechanisms took possession of a county-owned speculative building and should be ramped up for production in six months. Grundy County Executive LaDue Bouldin predicts that an initial workforce of 100 should grow to as many as 200 in less than three years. He surmises that Toyo was attracted to Grundy County, in part, because “we do run a little higher unemployment than our surrounding counties, so we offered a large worker base and dedicated employees to work in their type of facility.”
Grande says the job of luring industry to rural locations is enjoying renewed emphasis in his department, where all director-level employees have been assigned as points of contact for specific rural communities that need a helping hand at the state level.
“One of the things I think we can do as a staff is simply be more aggressive in getting to those communities and being willing to help,” Grande says. “I’m asking those individuals to be in those communities at a minimum of once a month, so that we begin to act as the champion and advocate for the issues in those communities throughout all of state government, whether it’s a road issue or a sewer line.”
He also applauds the efforts of many of Tennessee’s rural communities, which are investing in their own futures by committing to industrial parks and spec buildings. Seymour Tubing’s decision to locate in Sequatchie County was expedited by the existence of an industrial park that was under construction when company officials first took a look.
“None of this happened by accident,” Tollett says . “The mayor and I got together several years ago with Sequatchie Valley Electric, and we planned an industrial park and the infrastructure so that when a potential company came here, we would have something to show them. And we could tell them that they could be up and running in a matter of months.”
When it came to Seymour Tubing, “their building schedule and ours merged, and everything will be finished at the same time,” Tollett adds. “It was either good planning, or we were very lucky!”
As the old saying goes, hard work breeds good luck.
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
Photo by David Mudd
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