Region Forges Diverse Manufacturing Sector
Published Feb 19, 2009
Plastics company PWP Industries Inc. completed a 125,000-square-foot expansion in Abilene.
Manufacturing in the Texas Midwest is thriving, and the sector is a major player in the region’s economic development picture.
Strong local support and an excellent transportation infrastructure are key reasons for the sector’s continued vitality. Manufacturing jobs number nearly 15,600 in the Texas Midwest, about 8.2 percent of the total workforce.
Durham-Ellis Pecan Co. was founded in 1928 and remains a family-owned business in Comanche. The region is home to more than 10,000 acres of pecan trees, allowing for a quick trip from farm to factory, says Odie Dollins, president.
“Our growing season runs through September, when we start harvesting,” Dollins says. “We process our product year round, but we do get very busy in the fourth quarter due to the holidays.”
Durham employs around 80 people at its 130,000-square-foot facility, and also operates retail stores in Comanche, Fort Worth and Goldthwaite.
Its products may not be as tasty, but PWP Industries also is finding success. The manufacturer of food-packaging products is wrapping up a $22 million, 125,000-square-foot expansion at its Abilene facility. According to PWP, the new setup is eco-friendly, using natural lighting and reusing heat from the production process as a heat source for the facility.
On the economic development side of the equation, local officials work nonstop to recruit and retain their manufacturers, and few have been more diligent than the Winters Area Business and Industrial Corp. Founded in 1992 to promote Winters as a business destination, the organization has helped local firms such as HVAC parts maker Selkirk Corp. and auto storage-device maker Contico continue to thrive in challenging economic times.
“We have an unusual number of manufacturing companies and jobs here,” says Randall Conner, economic development director. Conner notes the community of 2,880 is home to five major manufacturers employing 450 people.
Most of these are light-metal manufacturing facilities, but that’s beginning to change. Since the late 1940s, when a single family built up and sold several smaller concerns, the metalworking business has developed. That’s led to feeder companies setting up shop nearby. Nowadays companies such as Selkirk and Contico are able to find packaging material and other vendors in town.
“We have the infrastructure to support feeder businesses like that,” Conner says. “We’ve got about 10 trucking companies that are here in town now, and so Selkirk has been able to turn this into its distribution center as well as having a plant here. We’re growing in that respect as well.”
Winters has always been able to adapt, changing from an agriculture-based economy to one that relied on oil and the energy sector, and eventually on manufacturing. As such, it can serve as a template for other areas, Conner says.
“When the farming and oil declined, manufacturing kept us alive,” Conner says. “It provides a lot of jobs, and the sector has stayed steady while the others have never come quite back to the way they were, at least not here. We’ve done pretty well for ourselves.”
Story by Joe Morris
Photo by J. Kyle Keener
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