Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com
Published - Monday, August 04, 2008
Manitowoc’s old Mirro center is growing factory
MANITOWOC, Wis. (AP) — What once was a mammoth distribution center of Mirro kitchen products now is a factory producing energy efficient lighting systems — with nearly four times the employees and more hiring planned.
After agreeing to add 170 jobs over three years, Orion Energy Systems will get $854,500 in tax credits from the state as a community development zone, Gov. Jim Doyle has announced.
It’s a boost for a company that has grown since the old Mirro works stopped operations several years ago.
Orion got a state jobs credit package of $350,000 in 2004 and now employs 131 manufacturing employees and 101 in sales, project management and corporate services.
“We bet on a pretty good horse,” Doyle said of the Plymouth-based Orion.
Dan Waibel, president of Orion Assets Management, said the new agreement amounts to a dollar-for-dollar deduction on the state corporate income tax return.
In return, the jobs created will range from $13 to $16.25 an hour, “and there’s a requirement we can’t move for five years,” Waibel said.
Orion’s technologies include lighting systems it says produce twice as much light for half the cost. It says its Apollo Light Pipes use “direct renewable energy” — the sun — to bring light to a building’s interior.
Customers include QuadGraphics, Office Max, Coca-Cola and Kraft Foods.
In Manitowoc County, Orion lighting is at Roncalli and Two Rivers high schools, among other spots.
While the corporate headquarters remains in Plymouth, where the company was founded in 1996, plans call for eventually moving it to its technology management, demonstration and training center under construction on the north side of the existing 260,000-square-foot plant.
The tech center should be completed by the end of the year at a cost of $8.5 million, part of a total Manitowoc investment of $13 million, Waibel said.
“In June 2004, we had about 60 people, now it’s nearly four times that,” said Neal Verfuerth, Orion president and CEO. “Our payroll has gone from $800,000 to about $4 million, when comparing the second quarter of 2004 to the second quarter of 2008.”
Verfuerth praised Doyle and Manitowoc Mayor Kevin Crawford as “true public servants, not politicians” for their support of the company.
Doyle lauded Orion as an “international leader in innovative lighting solutions.”
“Energy-efficient lighting systems are a great way to conserve energy and decrease facility costs,” Doyle said. “This expansion is not only good for Manitowoc, but it will allow more energy-saving products to reach the market.”
In July, Orion officials forecast sales of between $101 million and $103 million for their fiscal 2009, ending in March with a growth rate of 25 percent to 28 percent compared to fiscal 2008.
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