Industrial recruiters left to regroup after A.O. Smith bombshell

The Industrial Development Board was just as stunned as many others in the county when A.O. Smith officials announced the imminent closure of the McMinnville plant earlier this week.

A.O. Smith cited an inability to enhance the competitiveness of the local plant in the current market as the main reason for the shutdown. However, this did not appear to be the case on a global level.

An article in the Thursday edition of The Tennessean revealed the company actually reported record earnings in the second quarter of 2006. According to The Tennessean, the Milwaukee-based company posted sales of $594.5 million and a $25.1 million profit this year, in comparison to $437.7 million in sales and $6.5 million in profits in the second quarter last year.

IDB member Mark Brown said the announcement wasn?t a complete surprise.

?I think everybody suspected this would come,? Brown said. ?We?ve been operating in the mode of trying to hang onto them until the actual announcement was made.?

Brown said the focus has been to encourage A.O. Smith to continue operations at the local plant, so the news that the long-rumored closure is finally becoming a reality has left the IDB with yet another empty building to market.

The IDB has owned the building since 2000 when the city deeded it to the board. The building has been leased to A.O. Smith during that time.

Currently the IDB hasn?t made any definite plans for marketing the building.

?We didn?t hear about this until about two days ago,? Brown said. ?We haven?t had time to figure out exactly what we?re going to do. Until the announcement was made we had been working in good faith in every possible way to help them stay here.?

Brown said the IDB had presented a number of ideas to the company in an effort to make it more advantageous to remain in the area.

?There are several different things we had proposed over the past couple of years trying to encourage them to stay here,? Brown said. ?We asked the local management, ?Is there anything we can do to help you stay here’

The loss of 160 A.O. Smith jobs in the current economic situation presents another challenge to the IDB, but one that it is ready to address. In fact, economic development director Jeff McCormick said there is at least one good point in the situation.

?I will say that one of the prospects we are working with is a manufacturer of electric motors,? McCormick said. ?Of course I haven?t talked to them since I heard about the plant closing.?

McCormick said the company would be contacted about the building?s availability, but pointed out there is no way to know if the building would be appropriate due to its age and condition.

On the positive side, there are several companies interested in some of the other empty buildings in the county. McCormick reported four companies are interested in the Carrier building, two in the old WastAway building on Red Road, and two have expressed an interest in the Walter Wood building. In addition, two existing industries have reported an interest in expanding their operations in Warren County.

As usual, due to non-disclosure requests from the companies involved, as well as the competitive nature of industrial recruitment in the area, the IDB will not be releasing the names of these industries.