By TJ HEMLINGER, Staff Writer, Columbia City Post & Mail
TJ@thepostandmail.com
A local company is going to more than triple its workforce as officials move to consolidate production by moving machinery and equipment from a site in Ohio.
Coupled Products, 2651 S. 600E, currently has 34 employees and will add 88 more jobs when $25 million in machinery and equipment from Upper Sandusky, Ohio arrives. The company will add another $1 million in machinery to its existing inventory after the move.
The Whitley County Council voted Thursday morning to give the company a tax abatement of $25 million over 10 years for the equipment, which will be moved beginning this fall and completed by next February, Roy Ousley, plant controller, said.
Coupled Products primarily makes power steering lines, brake lines and heater lines for the automobile industry.
In the recent downturn in the auto industry, Coupled Products lost about 50 percent of its business and had two plants operating at less than 50 percent capacity. The consolidation will allow it to be competitive. The company also has a plant in Mexico.
"They were looking to get down to one plant," Alan Tio, president of the Whitley County Economic Development Corp., told the council. "They will be well-positioned to move ahead."
The council also voted to allocate up to $15,000 for infrastructure if the company decides to hook into the Columbia City water system. Currently it is on a well but using city sewage.
Headquarters for the company is in Rochester Hills, Mich.