By Boris Ladwig, The Republic City Editor
Last of a four-part series
Arvin Inc.'s local operations can succeed in the global market, current and former city leaders said.
Since the 2000 merger between Columbus-based Arvin Inc. and Troy, Mich.-based Meritor Automotive Inc., all former Arvin plants in Columbus have been sold.
The former central tubing plant on Road 450S belongs to a subsidiary of AK Steel Corp.
The 17th Street plant is owned by Cleveland-based investors.
The former headquarters building on Central Avenue serves as the administrative hub for Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.
United Way agencies occupy former Arvin buildings on 13th Street.
Most recently, ArvinMeritor Inc. announced it had agreed to sell the Gladstone plant and Walesboro Tech Center as part of the Emissions Technologies group to New York-based equity firm One Equity Partners.
Work at the former Arvin plants is continuing much as before - although under a different name.
In some cases, a change of ownership of manufacturing facilities can be beneficial to the employees and the community, the city leaders said.
Mayor Fred Armstrong said he hoped the sale of the Emissions Technologies group would mirror developments of the AK Steel plant, where employment is down slightly, but the owners are looking for new customers.
Armstrong met with an executive of One Equity Partners last week and said the tenor of the meeting was positive.
The sale is projected to be completed in the third quarter, and the new Emissions Technologies company is expected to have headquarters in Columbus and Michigan.
"Let's hope this is a positive change," Armstrong said.
Even Brooke E. Tuttle, the former president of Columbus Economic Development Board who described the merger as disastrous for Arvin and the community, said a change of ownership can have positive effects.
New owners can increase investment, secure new customers and increase employment.
There is a "potential for new community leadership as new leaders move to the community and potential exists to replace the dollars of lost corporate philanthropy," Tuttle said.
Opportunities
Former Arvin executive and former Columbus City Councilman John Brown said the emissions technology business holds tremendous opportunities.
Governmental emissions limits, hybrid technology and greater fuel economy standards are requiring innovative approaches.
When the exhaust facility was built near Walesboro, it was the world's finest, Brown said, and he doesn't see any reason as to why that should have changed.
"Hopefully the new owner will say he's got the crown jewel of exhaust-research facilities," Brown said.
The automotive sector is still the single-largest industry in the world, he said.
Cummins Inc.'s successes prove that you can make healthy returns while improving the environment and caring for the community, Brown said.
He and Armstrong said that the community must help the new owners make sure the businesses succeed.
Brown said the community must look forward and focus on making sure the new company has everything it needs in terms of qualified employees, infrastructure and other aspects.
"It could be the next Cummins," he said.
Tuttle, too, said he was "very confident this community will continue its growth in population, new investment, new job creation and ... quality of life.
"Columbus has new strong aggressive leadership throughout all sectors: business, government, nonprofit.
"We have been through these uncertain times before," Tuttle said.
He also said the merger in 2000 and subsequent events in Columbus have paralleled developments in the rest of the world.
"In 1942, the free-market economist Joseph Schumpeter coined the phrase 'creative destruction,' meaning technological change - and I would add globalization - constantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within.
"Today's economic environment is very tough and unforgiving, especially manufacturing. Errors in judgment and mistakes are punished in brutal fashion," he said.
"In this context, I believe you can say, 'Arvin was creatively destructed.'"
One Equity Partners could not be reached