High-skill, 'niche' industries could be future of manufacturing in DeKalb

DeKALB - Roger Hopkins, who tracks the local economy as head of the DeKalb County Economic Development Corp., can tick off the manufacturers that have closed in recent years, taking hundreds of jobs with them. There's CTS Corp., an electronics components maker that cost the county 240 jobs when it shut down its plant in Sandwich, and DeKalb's Rittenhouse Paper Co., which closed in March 2001, eliminating 37 jobs. Since buying DeKalb Genetics, Monsanto has reduced its employment in the county from about 500 to about 130, Hopkins said. AGCO Corp. closed its tractor-making plant in DeKalb earlier this spring a little more than a year after buying it from Caterpillar. All told, a good portion of the 4,200 positions DeKalb County has lost since 1997 were in the industrial sector. "Most of the companies that rely on low-cost labor for assembly have either closed and left the county," Hopkins said, or been able to reduce employee numbers because of advances in automation and technology. No doubt some of the those jobs have left the country. Monona Wire stands as one example. That DeKalb company closed its doors this fall, moving most of its production and 185 jobs to a plant in Mexico, where labor is cheaper. On a recent visit to China, Paul Rasmussen, the city of DeKalb's community development director, was surprised and disturbed to see so many European and American factories there. "Personally, it scares me a little bit," he said. Hopkins said that many of the jobs that are left at home are high- to medium-skill production positions such as for machinists, whose job used to require them to pull levers but now means setting up and running the machines that do the actual work. Distribution and warehousing, although often not as high-paying as old-line factory work, is another area DeKalb County is looking to expand. For example, developers of the Park 88 industrial park in DeKalb see it as perfectly situated amid major transportation routes such as interstates 88 and 39 and the railroad tracks, as well as being close to the new railport in Rochelle. The county has other characteristics that might make it attractive to employers as well. "If DeKalb has an ace in the hole, it's really because of our proximity to the university," Rasmussen said. He was long argued that Northern Illinois University can provide the kinds of high-skilled, tech-savvy employees sought after in an information economy. "I'd love to have more high-tech jobs because of the university," he said. About 1,200 of the 4,200 jobs lost countywide since 1997 have been replaced, Hopkins said, largely with construction work, or when smaller manufacturers add five to 10 jobs at a time. Rasmussen said there are opportunities to attract smaller, niche manufacturers that provide relatively high-skilled work. Premium Wood Products, which took over the old Rittenhouse plant on East Locust Street, is one example of this trend. Rasmussen said the city also is talking with another wood products manufacturer about coming to DeKalb. "Small businesses are creating the majority of jobs in this economy," said Mike Walt, president of DeKalb's WALT LTD, a tool and die, fabrication, mold-making and welding company. "The plus side of a smaller operation is the ability to know your employees and customers on a more personal basis and to control your quality and service." Suter Co. of Sycamore, which produces 200 different perishable and canned food items, counts its ability to develop new products that are tailored to customers' needs as the key to its success. "The single most important thing to us is new product innovation," Suter president Tim Suter said. The company, which has been in business since 1925 and employs about 130 people, may have an advantage over other non-food manufacturers because the perishable items it makes can't be shipped that far. Moving the factory to Mexico or India isn't really an option in that regard. But about 50 percent of its business is from canned goods, which could conceivably be produced far from where they are eventually eaten. Suter said higher labor costs here than in some less-developed nations is an issue for his business but not a "significant one." He said his customers are willing to pay more for food products that are tailored to their needs. Because opportunities to attract industry may be increasingly rare in years to come, Hopkins said communities need to be ready to offer things such as employment training and tax breaks to take advantage of those opportunities. A ready-made property tax abatement package is something Park 88's backers and DeKalb-area officials have been working on, with the goal to have a proposal that can immediately be passed on to companies that show interest in the industrial park. Walt, who's worked in manufacturing in the DeKalb area for 35 years, said such incentives are one of many things that can make an area attractive to manufacturers. Hopkins also said his office has a series of "industry-specific information sheets" that target sectors of the economy including heavy equipment parts manufacturing, warehousing and office employment. The sheets explain things about DeKalb County that would make locating such businesses here attractive. Chris Rickert can be reached at crickert@ pulitzer.net.