Morrison Tool plans to hire 75

Morrison Tool & Fab celebrated the completion of its new production facility Friday with several company, state and county officials on hand for the ceremony. The 102,000-square foot expansion will give the local manufacturing concern a total of 146,000 square feet of space, dramatically increasing the company?s production capacity. With the completion of this project Morrison Tool & Fab is now one of the country?s largest manufacturers of packing and shipping racks for the automotive and other industries, according to owner and president Ron Wilson.

The increase in capacity has allowed the company, which currently employs around 150 workers, to take on more business, and Wilson says the company has immediate openings for an additional 75 to 80 employees in all areas of the plant, with even more potential jobs to come within the next 12 to 15 months as he establishes a second and a third shift.

?We need a lot of welders,? Wilson said, ?and we have a formalized training program for those positions, which is monitored by the state. They reimburse us for some of our training dollars, so that works out well.

?We?re also looking for assembly operators, painters, forklift drivers and even some management positions,? Wilson said.

The company pays competitive starting wages, including $8.50 per hour for non-skilled operators and $9.50 for welding trainees. Within two to three years operators will be in the $12.50 to $13 per hour range, according to Wilson. Morrison Tool maintains an excellent benefits package, with health insurance for employees completely covered by the company as well as a large portion of insurance costs for the employee?s family. The company also funds a first-rate retirement program for workers.

Interested individuals should apply in person at the facility, which is located at 211 Progress Blvd. in Mountain View Industrial Park in Morrison. The company can be contacted by phone at 931-668-7909.

Wilson said the new business is coming in from a number of sources and as a result, Morrison Tool is currently experiencing a major growth period.

?What?s been happening over the last 90 days is that we?ve been looked at by some very large corporations,? Wilson said. ?PACCAR Industries, which is located in Washington state, has selected Morrison Tool as a preferred supplier. We will be supplying a portion of 80 percent of all their packaging needs in the future.?

PACAR manufactures Class A trucks and currently owns and operates the Peterbilt plant in Nashville, as well as seven other plants in North America.

?We?ll be supplying a large portion of the packaging for those eight plants,? Wilson said. ?The other part of the equation, and the major reason we did our plant expansion, is Toyota Manufacturing, where we are one of basically three or four suppliers in North America that supplies all of their packaging needs. Several years ago they encouraged me to continue to grow and increase my capacity. So we have done that primarily to service the automotive industry and especially Toyota, which recently took over the number one spot as the largest car manufacturer in North America.?

Toyota Canada has also expressed an interest in using Morrison Tool products for the company?s new model line, which is still in the planning stages.

?They have an 18-month window of preparing for that launch,? Wilson said. ?They?ve already selected Morrison Tool to supply a large portion of their packaging for their entire fleet. The Corolla is going to be produced in Canada and in California, so we?ll be supplying packaging for both of those Toyota locations.?

The company currently services around 600 customers. Morrison Tool is also very much interested in recycling, returning much of the excess plastic left over from its routing processes to the supplier to be recycled in a process which benefits both the company and the environment. Another growing portion of the business is recycling and refurbishing of existing packaging racks for a variety of companies, which are then put back in service.

Wilson says he credits the Industrial Development Board for its aid in putting together a funding package for the expansion, which included a number of low interest loans and infrastructure grants.

?Everything I asked them to do for me, they did,? Wilson. ?I encourage the county and city to provide the IDB with the funding they need to recruit industry for this county. We are in a very competitive market for jobs and if this county is to grow and provide those jobs, we need to do whatever it takes to fund the educational system and the manufacturing infrastructure. We also need to continue to support existing industry and help it to grow as part of a complete package to provide jobs in Warren County.?