January 5, 2011
01/06/11 Representatives from the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation, Plymouth Industrial Development Corporation, and the Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce, Indiana Economic Development Corporation, and City of Plymouth gathered together Wednesday morning to celebrate the recent expansion and new warehouse location of Whitley Products.
In November the City approved a tax abatement for new equipment valued at just over $1 million. The new equipment is the result of a major contract awarded to Whitley by Case New Holland.
On Wednesday Rick Green, Plant Manager showed off the news facility at 1100 Flora Street. The 61,000 square foot building is being leased to Whitley from the PIDCO. Currently they are only using about half of the space but their projection is that they will fill the whole building up.
Green said local contractors were able to relocate plumbing and air and change the power over from 480 to 220 and 110 in the matter of 10 days while moving some of their manufacturing equipment line from the Stanley Drive location to Flora Street. On January 3rd they began finishing and shipping from the new location.
Whitley Products is the leading and largest tier two suppliers of fabricated tubular products serving the diesel engine, agricultural and off highway industries. They specialize in fabricating tubular assemblies for pressure applications with a special focus on injection lines, hydraulic tube assemblies, tube/hose assemblies, and brazed/welded assemblies.
Green explained that they are responsive to their customer’s special needs. A big order would be 500 parts while they run piece orders of 25 to 50 many times.
When asked about the future Green said, “The outlook is good. The good news is we survived.” He also said, “If the PIDCO facility hadn’t been available this operation would probably have moved to our North Carolina facility.”
The tax abatement statement said that Whitley would hire 30 new employees by 2012. So far 15 new employees have been in training and Green said they won’t be looking to train any additional staff until this summer. They use a personnel service and those temporary employees are paid from $8 to $10 hourly. If hired on full time after the 90 trial period Whitley pays from $12 to $18 hourly.