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JR Manufacturing President Shin Omae, left, speaks with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine at Cooper Brothers Community Pavilion in Fort Recovery on Monday.
FORT RECOVERY - Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine visited Fort Recovery on Monday afternoon to examine firsthand the damage wrought to JR Manufacturing by a fire and open a line of communication with company officials.
No one was reported injured in the April 22 blaze that took the combined efforts of 15 fire departments to subdue but the site is believed to be a total loss. The 68,200-square-foot complex at 900 Industrial Drive consisted of manufacturing areas, corporate offices and a machine shop.
After talking with village, county and company officials at Cooper Brothers Community Pavilion on Monday, DeWine was astounded to learn a resilient workforce on Friday resumed production of safety components for the auto industry by shifting operations to its support facilities in Fort Recovery and Coldwater.
"We haven't had any disruptions at any major OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) yet so that's very positive," said Trent Hamrick, JR Manufacturing's vice president of Ohio production.
"That's just amazing that you guys can get back to doing stuff," DeWine enthused, learning the company's workers are repairing equipment.
"We built 90% of what's in our facility. We designed it and built it with our team," Hamrick said.
Not only has the company scrambled to get things running again, it has committed to replacing the fire-ravaged complex, Hamrick and JR Manufacturing President Shin Omae confirmed.
In the meantime, the company is busy retooling and beefing up production at its two other support buildings on Industrial Drive in Fort Recovery and a 54,000-square-foot leased space in the Sycamore Group building in Coldwater.
It plans to take on an addition 40,000-square-feet in the Coldwater building this week, Hamrick said.
"We're bringing team members back as needed as we get machines running," he said.
Jenna Wilson, the company's human resources director, said 90 people worked in the complex claimed by flames.
"We expect in the next two weeks to have everybody back to work," Wilson said. "We have picked up workload as the machines have become available. All that tooling and the machining that was in that facility had to get modified or rebuilt, and then as it's becoming available we've either put it in our wire processing facility or moved it over to our Coldwater plant to run."
She said some of JR Manufacturing's tooling needs are being outsourced.
"We have some area companies that are helping us," Hamrick added.
DeWine said several state agencies might be able to assist JR Manufacturing in the aftermath of a fire that destroyed its headquarters in Fort Recovery.
DeWine felt it important to see the situation for himself and signal the state will do what it can to help, noting he has every confidence the company and community will recover from the fire.
"We want to help you. We know how important JR is to the county," DeWine said. "I want to make sure everybody here understands that we're going to do everything we can to get them back here as fast as possible."
The company needs to check what's covered by insurance but state departments such as Jobs Ohio and the department of development may be of assistance, DeWine said.
"The key is making sure we're in good communication. Communication is just vitally important when you're talking about something like this," he said.
DeWine over lunch heard from village mayor Dave Kaup, village administrator Randy Diller, county community development director Jared Ebbing, sheriff Jeff Grey, company officials and others.
"We're in the very early stages of this," DeWine said. "I'm impressed by how anxious everybody is to get rolling."
The fire remains under investigation by the state fire marshal, said Ohio Department of Commerce Public Information Officer Andy Ellinger. He had no new details to report on Monday.
Above all, Hamrick said he's thankful no first responders or employees were injured in the fire.
"That means the most to us. We can rebuild tooling, we can do all that stuff. We can't bring people back," he said.
He shared with the newspaper how much the company appreciates the outpouring of support from the community.
"The community that we live in, we have a lot of people that are very caring," he said. "Whether they were dropping meals off, whether they were helping with tooling, whether they were helping us move parts, we're just very thankful to have the community that we have."
Founded in 1998, the company produces headrests, seat frames, armrests and other tubing and wire components for the automotive seating industry.
Most of the nearly 80 different parts it manufactures are safety devices supplied to 20 OEMs, the largest being Honda, Hamrick said.
He lauded the company's hard working employees, calling them a great asset.
"A lot of our team members, they're farmers as well," he said. "Not only do they come to JR to perform their task, they also go home and they have a secondary job."
