Thursday, September 13th, 2018
Celina Tent to create jobs in St. Marys
From staff reports
ST. MARYS - Celina Tent's expansion into the former Kmart on Indiana Avenue should result in new jobs, according to a company news release.
The expansion will create jobs as additional employees will be required for assembling the product lines that will be moved into the space, company administration manager Jill Roy said in a news release.
"Opening a work space in St. Marys will let us hire from a wider locality, spreading the availability of jobs further than we could before with just our main plant in Celina," company vice president Janice Grieshop said in the release.
Hiring will begin when the machining and logistics are finalized, Roy said.
"We should have access to the space early in September and plan to begin assembly at the St. Marys location by the fourth quarter of 2018," Celina Tent President Jeff Grieshop said in the release. "This will be the largest expansion of production space since the company added the 100,000-square-foot distribution center at their main assembly plant in 2017."
Many of the shelters that will be assembled at the St. Marys facility were engineered at the Celina location, Roy pointed out. These well-established products will be relocated to the St. Marys location for final assembly. Some employees will be transferred to the new facility to continue day-to-day operations and to ensure quality standards are maintained.
Celina Tent Inc. is a family-owned fabric welding and manufacturing business. Product lines cover commercial rental-use tents and canopies; industrial products, including ducting and heavy duty tarps; and specialty products for humanitarian and military use. Celina Tent has offices, distribution centers and manufacturing plants in the U.S., the Philippines, the United Kingdom and China.
The building is in St. Marys Square, which formerly housed Kmart and J.C. Penney and has several other shops.
A group of local businesspeople operating as St. Marys Square Business Complex LLC announced they had purchased the property. The Auglaize County Recorder listed that transaction price at $4.1 million.
