In 1995, when the owners of DT Swiss Inc., a bicycle components company, searched for a location in the United States to serve their U.S. customers, the logical place would have been on the East Coast or West Coast, closer to their largest customers and to freight deliveries from the home office in Switzerland.
Instead, they chose Grand Junction because property was less expensive, taxes were low, and there was a strong workforce available, said Chip Barbieri, CEO and general manager of DT Swiss Grand Junction. Financial incentives from the City of Grand Junction and the Mesa County Economic Development Council (MCEDC), which became Grand Junction Economic Partnership (GJEP), were key in that decision.
Now, nearly 30 years later, DT Swiss Grand Junction remains here, with a plant on Industrial Boulevard and a workforce nearing 50 employees.
Similar stories have played out for other companies that were recruited to Mesa County over the past four decades, since MCEDC was formed in 1984. Wiggy’s Bags Inc, maker of high-quality sleeping bags and winter clothing, and Reynolds Polymer Technology Inc., manufacturers of large-scale acrylic products, such as aquariums and specialty pools, are two such companies.
They have stayed because it makes economic sense to do so, because they have found dependable employees here and because the community culture and outdoor activities attract people who want to remain.
Additionally, companies have found a valuable ally in GJEP as an organization that works with them on navigating available business resources, including incentives, programs and site selection. GJEP provides ongoing support to businesses through connections to workforce development partners and key stakeholders at the local, state and federal levels, helping them get established and continue to grow.
“At GJEP, we are dedicated to helping businesses thrive by offering customized resources, regional expertise and hands-on support,” said GJEP Executive Director Curtis Englehart. “The Grand Junction area presents a unique combination of economic advantages suited to a wide range of industries. Businesses here benefit from a collaborative community, valuable state tax incentives, and a strategic location that provides access to the entire Western U.S. market. Nothing makes us prouder than seeing businesses that chose to relocate or expand here years ago continue to succeed. These are powerful examples of why the Grand Junction area is an ideal place to do business.”
One company that relocated and remained here is Reynolds Polymer, which arrived in Grand Junction in 1993. That occurred about a year after Scott Sullivan, then the chief financial officer for the company, heard an MCEDC advertisement while driving in Southern California, where Reynolds Polymer was located at the time.
Then-President Roger Reynolds “had told me he wanted to move the company to a more rural area,” Sullivan recalled. “We had looked at Reno and Carson City, Nevada, Central California, Texas and Bend, Oregon.”
After hearing the ad, Sullivan contacted MCEDC. Soon, he met with board members Denny Granum, Ron Rozga, Bill Sisson and Bernie Buescher. The company received a variety of incentives to move here, including the parcel of land in Foresight Park where its factory still sits.
A Thanksgiving dinner to which Roger Reynolds and his wife were invited, along with several MCEDC board members, was also important. “The hospitality we were afforded during our visits was very remarkable,” Reynolds said. After that dinner, he told Sullivan, “We’re moving to Grand Junction.”
Sullivan left Reynolds for other business opportunities about 2003. He returned in 2012, when Roger Reynolds asked him to become president. He remained in that job until 2018.
While he was Reynolds’ president, Sullivan also served nine years on the GJEP board, including one term as president.
“It was an honor to be part of that organization and help diversify the Grand Junction economy,” said Sullivan. “I was in a good position to work well with other potential recruits because I could tell them about our experience at Reynolds.”
Reynolds Polymer currently has approximately 85 employees in Grand Junction, said Jessica Smith, vice president of business systems for the company.
Jerry Wigutow, owner of Wiggy’s Bags, which has a factory on Industrial Boulevard, moved his company to Grand Junction in 1986 from South Carolina.
“I started looking for locations around the country that I could move to, and contacted several,” he recalled. “Grand Junction was the only one that responded. I was contacted by MCEDC and I worked with (then-Executive Director) Rick Leech. I asked for some cash to help me move and set up my plant and they provided it. My experience with them was wonderful.”
Currently, Wiggy’s employs 25 to 27 employees. It sells to the public mostly through mail-order, online sales. But it also has contracts to supply sleeping bags and other cold-weather gear to the U.S. Air Force. The National Science Foundation has used Wiggy’s bags in Antarctica, and the company supplies hypothermia bags to search-and-rescue organizations.
At DT Swiss, Barbieri wasn’t employed by the company when it moved to Grand Junction, but he worked for one of its largest customers, Cannondale Bikes. He knew the company’s owners, Frank Bockmann, Maurizio D’Alberto and Marco Zingg, and he learned why they chose Grand Junction.
In addition to the economic advantages of Mesa County, “I think the area kind of hooked them,” Barbieri said. “It looked like every John Wayne movie they’d seen, and one of them was into fly fishing,” so it was a good fit.
Barbieri left Cannondale and worked in other industries until Bockmann persuaded him to take the helm of DT Swiss Grand Junction in 2005.
The company still makes high-end spokes for all types of bicycles, but has expanded into building hubs and wheels for the rapidly evolving industry, which now includes road bikes and mountain bikes, a variety of hybrids and e-bikes.
During the 40 years since MCEDC was founded, some of the companies recruited early on have left, lured by cheaper wages overseas or by hefty financial enticements from other communities.
Even for those that have stayed, there are occasional influences to move.
For instance, Barbieri said, communities in other states have offered DT Swiss large financial incentives to relocate its U.S. manufacturing operations to their area.
However, there are plenty of reasons to stay, despite such inducements. Operating costs might be higher in other areas, and the company would lose the experienced employees it has here. “We’d have to hire new employees and train them,” Barbieri said.
Reynolds Polymer also benefits from its stable local workforce. “Our average employee has worked here for eight years,” Smith said. “We have a few who have been here 30 years.”
That, combined with the continuing investment the company has made in Grand Junction over the past three decades are among the reasons the company remains here, she said, even though it has opened new plants overseas to reach new markets.
For his part, Wigutow, hasn’t seen any reason to move Wiggy’s since he settled in Grand Junction.
“I haven’t looked back,” he said. “I came out here and I liked it a lot. I could fish, camp and ski. And our employees are like family.”
Source: https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/western_colorado/financial-incentives-and-local-hospitality-attracted-and-retained-businesses-in-grand-junction/article_b0189b02-9086-11ef-933a-7ffb75024def.html
