by Stephen Kimball
An exciting ribbon cutting recently took place in Groton, New York. This event was a celebration of not only a new high tech fire truck manufacturing business opening. It was also the culmination of several years of work to create Plastisol Composites, a partnership between the Dutch firm Plastisol BV and Alan Saulsbury, who has been in the fire truck manufacturing business for 45 years. Rob Walraven owns Plastisol BV. This international partnership is one of the most exciting elements of the venture. Plastisol BV has been looking for a US base of operations, when they decided on Groton. That Tompkins County was able to secure this deal proves we are a contender-location for world-class international businesses.
Assisting in the creation of this partnership was Tompkins County Area Development (TCAD) which delivered Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency incentives valued at $170,00, and the Village of Groton. This is an excellent example of what happens when different organizations in our community collaborate with entrepreneurs. Exciting new businesses with well paying jobs are created.
Gary Watrous of the First National Bank of Groton, an institution critical to the projects success, described the collaborative process involved in the project. “We started working with Plastisol in November of 2007 after we received a tip that Alan Saulsbury might be getting back into the fire truck business. The Village of Groton Industrial Development Agency quickly arranged meetings with the necessary local, County and State officials in an effort to eliminate some of the red tape and expedite the process as much as possible. Because our community doesn't have any areas designated as an Empire Zone, we had to be creative to come up with a competitive financial package for Plastisol. Fortunately, with assistance from a variety of resources, we were able to do so. It took a dedicated community effort as well as assistance from County, State and Federal sources to make this proposal a reality. Needless to say, Groton is extremely pleased to have Plastisol be the first company in the Village of Groton Industrial Park. We are optimistic that this successful effort will lead to us being able to bring another company to our Business Park.”
Interestingly, although located on different continents, the Saulsbury’s and the Walraven’s share very similar family histories. They both come from families with historic ties to pioneering and manufacturing fire trucks in their home countries. Alan Saulsbury’s family has a 100-year history in the industry in the United States. While Rob Walraven’s family opened Plastisol BV in 1973 in the Netherlands.
The technology being used to construct the fire trucks at Plastisol is very exciting. They manufacture the bodies from Glass-fiber Reinforced Polyester (GRP). This composite material is produced using a vacuum-injection process developed by Plastisol, in which resin is injected into the glass fiber and, where relevant, into foam cores. Following curing, it results in an extremely strong “sandwich construction” that is then painted in any required color. The truck bodies are self-supporting and are mounted outboard of the chassis frame rails with stress relieving flexible mountings. In fact, when you enter Plastisol’s building, there is no machinery, save for two overhead cranes that move the truck components to different stations in the manufacturing process.
In addition to the already exciting creation of 125 well-paying jobs, the opening of Plastisol Composites and the Groton Industrial Park where it’s housed is going to allow TCAD and Plastisol to work together to try and bring additional businesses to the park. This is part of TCAD’s Targeted Marketing Initiative that has the goal of finding businesses that would benefit from locating in Tompkins County. In the case of Plastisol we’re working to seek out firms that are connected with the fire truck manufacturing process already taking place at the plant in Groton. As the name indicates, this project is highly targeted only seeking out business that would have a logical reason to locate here. While this is challenging, when we are successful this initiative strengthens our local as well as the larger regional economy.
In the end, as exciting and unique as the Plastisol Composites project is, it has one major similarity with many of the best projects that TCAD has been involved. When innovation, entrepreneurs, and organizations collaborate, exciting new businesses and jobs become a reality in Tompkins County.
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Plastisol Composites
Tompkins County Area Development
200 East Buffalo Street, Suite 102A Ithaca, New York 14850 ( 607 ) 273 - 0005 |