Morrison Tool & Fab scales down expansion: Plans dropped to buy former Findlay building
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Wilson noted it was not an easy decision to make, considering the time and effort everyone had devoted to putting the deal together.
“It was a personal decision,” he said, “and there was a lot of soul-searching.”
Wilson said quite a few things had changed since the process began last November, eventually resulting in his decision to put off the move.
“There’s several reasons I guess,” he said. “One is, when we initially started talking to the industrial board, we had about 75 employees and thought we had maximized our current capacity in the building that we have. Of course, that was back in November.
“Since then we’ve been able to hire and put to work an additional 25 to 30 people, and basically found ways to be creative enough to get more product out in the facility that we’re in. So that’s one reason.”
He also said the company has lost some potential business due to being unable to expand quickly, noting he was well aware the IDB had made every effort to move the process along as quickly as possible.
“The industrial board has worked extremely hard on trying to close the deal,” Wilson said. “And it looked like there was some reluctance on Findlay’s part to actually sell the building for some reason.”
Though Wilson admitted the delay was definitely a factor, it was certainly not the only one.
“None of the reasons were the single source reason why we might not do the deal,” he said.
Wilson said some fairly recent information had a major effect on his plans.
“One of the things that we’ve been considering is we’ve received notification that we can expect a 75 to 80 percent increase in our health care costs next year,” he said. “And you know, that’s a hard blow right there because we offer a good health care package to our employees.”
Wilson, who deals with Blue Cross Blue Shield, was concerned the increased cost of health insurance, coupled with the cost of the expansion, could hurt profits.
“You know, if I had 200 employees, it would cost me $80,000 a month in health care,” he said. “We weren’t sure that we’d be able to be competitive in our market with that type of overhead.”
On the positive side, Wilson said he still plans to expand, just not on as large a scale as originally planned.
“We still think that we can continue to hire in the facility that we’re in,” he said. “We’re looking at starting a third-shift operation, and I think we’ll still be able to hire a lot of employees and still be competitive.”
Wilson says even with the help of the county, he still would have had a $300,000 to $400,000 out-of-pocket expense for the purchase of equipment.
“Which that’s an investment we wouldn’t have to make if we can make our current facility work.”
Wilson says if he adds a third shift, it could employ as many as 30 workers, bringing his total to around 130 total employees. Despite the eventual outcome, Wilson was very complimentary of the efforts the IDB and the county commission had made during the process.
“The industrial board, I will have to praise them,” Wilson said. “They worked very diligently on it. They were all 100 percent behind doing the deal, and the county commission has been extremely supportive of it. It was a hard personal decision to not do it, because we’ve been a very successful business and we want to continue to be successful. We just felt like the timing was not perfect.”