Anderson Engineering executives Steve Brady, Jerrod Hogan, Bruce Rhodes and Siegfried Tarnowieckyi are moving into a larger Joplin facility.

Crossover Coverage: Joplin appeals to Springfield companies

Cory Smith

Posted online June 25, 2006 | 11:00 pm

There are about 150,000 people in Springfield and about 47,000 people in Joplin. The cities, roughly 75 miles apart, together serve the shopping needs of more than a million people.

Plenty of Springfield-based companies have tapped the Joplin market and vice versa. Interstate 44 provides natural linkage between two apparently very similar cities – both are 91 percent white and both have a per capita income of $17,000.

Still, Creative Car Audio owner Don Fleury dispelled the notion that Joplin is simply a smaller version of Springfield.

“They really have their own personalities,” he said.

Fleury said he sells more sound systems for cars in Springfield, yet he sells more sound systems for 18-wheelers and watercraft in Joplin.

Fleury lives in Nixa, but his business is based in Joplin. He owns stores in Springfield, Joplin, Sedalia and Pittsburg, Kan. He’s operated in Joplin since 1994 and in Springfield since 2001.

Pearl Copeland is executive director in Joplin for Springfield-based Integrity Home Care, Springfield Business Journal’s No. 1 fastest-growing company on the 2006 Dynamic Dozen list. Integrity Home Care also has offices in Kansas City and Columbia.

Copeland said Integrity Home Care has about 300 employees in Joplin and about 500 in Springfield. Joplin is a good market, she said, because Integrity can serve about 250,000 people in Joplin and its outlying communities.

Several Springfield companies already have expanded their operations in Joplin, and others are in the process.

Secure Shred owner Eric Pool said customer demand prompted him to buy a mobile shredding unit specifically for his Joplin clients seven years ago.

Steve Brady and Anderson Engineering are spending $750,000 to acquire and renovate the former Missouri Steel Casting office on Third Street in Joplin.

Anderson Engineering has operated in Springfield since 1954 and in Joplin since 1982.

In September, the firm will grow its Joplin operation from 3,500 square feet to 12,000 square feet.

Brady said Anderson Engineering derives 60 percent of its business from Springfield, though Springfield and Joplin could split business in coming years if the Joplin expansion goes well.

LaDon Mortgage, established in Springfield about two years ago, broke into the Joplin market six months ago.

Owner Don Kennemer said his commercial and home construction lending business generates 90 percent of its business from Springfield, where it has 21 employees. So far, it has four employees in Joplin and has generated a few residential loans.

Meanwhile, Joplin-based Candy House Gourmet Chocolates is expanding its presence in Springfield. Cari Kessler, shipping and special orders manager, said Candy House is relocating its Carthage store to East Sunshine with an expected fall opening.

Owners Terry and Pat Hicklin, who own two stores in Joplin, hail from Springfield and their daughter, Bonnie Hicklin, is regional manager and manager of the 3857 S. Campbell Ave. store, which opened four years ago.

“We thought we could better utilize our resources by opening a second location in Springfield,” Kessler said. “It’s a growing market for us.”

Sister Act

These are some of the companies that are based either in Joplin or Springfield and have corporately owned operations in both cities.

ACR Nally

Anderson Engineering

Bill’s Electric

BKD LLP

Candy House Gourmet Chocolates

Corporate Business Systems

Creative Car Audio

Federal Protection

Great Southern Bank