Celina Tent to set up in Coldwater, add jobs

Celina Tent is expanding its operations to Coldwater and will provide up to 12 new local jobs in the wake of its recent contract with the U.S. Department of Defense.

The tent manufacturer will lease 18,000 square feet of the former New Idea Building in Coldwater. It also will continue with plans to expand its current Celina location along state Route 29.

Co-owner Janice Grieshop said the company will use the Coldwater facility, which is scheduled to be up and running in April, for the sole purpose of creating military tents for the federal government.

By October, the company expects to have completed an 18,000-square-foot expansion of one its three primary buildings in Celina. That facility will focus on manufacturing commercial tents.

"This should open up a lot of doors," Grieshop told the newspaper this morning.

Celina Tent is in the second year of a five-year contract with the government, in which it has been contracted to produce humanitarian tents to be sent to disaster-ridden areas throughout the world.

"We will be producing our humanitarian tent line in the Coldwater facility (150 units per month), thus allowing us to separate our inventory and have the capability to surge if the government has the need for more tents," a press release states.

The humanitarian shelter is a 16-by-16-foot tent with roof vents, wall vents and a floor, according to the press release. Grieshop said the tents are comprised of coated vinyl that prevents the permutation of light.

Also, the tents are manufactured with all materials, parts and labor from America. Much of the tent material is shipped in from Warsaw, Ind., while the fittings are provided by Davis Welding, Montezuma, and the transportation crates come from Coldwater Lumber.

As part of the agreement with the government, Celina Tent will ship the first load of 10 tents by April 4, before sending 50 tents in the months of May, June and July. By Jan 5, 2008, Grieshop said the company will be producing 150 tents a month, a total delivery of 1,210 tents.

The tents will be inspected by a quality control group from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, before they are shipped out by the government, Grieshop said.

Once the tents leave the country to assist in the relief efforts of tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes, they will never come back, as the government does not want to spread contamination.

"(Once) they ship them out, they're gone," she said.

Grieshop, who co-owns the business with her son Jeff, said it's a very exciting time at Celina Tent. The company has come a long way since its beginning in 1996 in a home garage. At that time, Janice, her husband and their two sons began a rental business.

Since selling the rental division in 2005, the company focuses on designing, manufacturing and distributing commercial and military tents throughout the world, with the help of around 20 employees at the Celina location.