Northstar operation faces tight labor market

NorthStar Battery LLC announced plans at an Aug. 25 press conference to build a $35 million, 139,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in the Partnership Industrial Center.

The company will manufacture and market standby batteries for industrial applications, and according to Lester Miller, NorthStar's chairman, the plant will employ as many as 200 people within three years.

The news that the start-up company would build its first plant in the PIC came just a day after the Missouri Department of Economic Development released statistics that indicated the unemployment rate for the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area was 1.9 percent for the month of July.

Greg Williams, vice president of economic development for the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber is just as concerned with the low unemployment rates as local employers.

He added that the chamber is equally aware of the under-employment rate, which is the number of people who have jobs but need or want to move to better positions.

|quot|Any recent expansion or new location of business and industry to the Springfield area has been somewhat surprised in that the number of applications submitted far outweigh the number of available positions in those firms,|quot| Williams said.

Williams said the labor pool is one of many factors companies look at when considering Springfield as a location.

|quot|They wouldn't locate an operation, or they wouldn't take the risk of investing millions and millions of dollars in a new project, if they weren't confident that there is an employee base here that has the experience, the education, the background, to be able to step up and move, and promote themselves within this labor force,|quot| he said.

Williams said creating new, quality manufacturing jobs in the Springfield area is one of the chamber's responsibilities, and he said based on the annual citizen survey conducted by the city of Springfield, that's what the public wants, too.

|quot|For the past five years, at least five years, the top two concerns of people who live in this area, in this community, are traffic congestion and the availability of quality new jobs,|quot| he said. |quot|When a new operation does open its doors and offer new jobs, they are being filled, not just by the citizens of Springfield, but by an ever-increasing region ... from a minimum of 45 to 50 miles (away), who choose to come into Springfield to work and do business.|quot|

The chamber's division of economic development works with the Missouri Department of Economic Development on work force development issues, and the chamber has an active work force development committee, Williams said. But he said the chamber might eventually have to become more aggressive in its efforts to bring workers to Springfield.

David Karr is the assistant director of marketing and sales at Conco Companies, and he's also the chairman of the chamber's Workforce Development Committee.

Karr said the committee doesn't do personnel recruiting for specific companies, but it looks at labor and work force issues for the Springfield area as a whole.

|quot|What we try to do is to promote an environment that's good for businesses coming in, promoting ideas of training, of quality of education, because what we want is for the overall pool to be very acceptable for new businesses coming in,|quot| Karr said. |quot|A lot of our energy goes into working with the educational system, with the schools, talking about skills and trying to get in a position where we're partnering with the education community to help that whole partnership of business and education to work well,|quot| he said.

Karr added that the tight labor market in the area has been an important issue with companies here, but he said most are able to fill their employee needs by using creative ideas and efforts.

|quot|I would be very surprised if NorthStar has a problem getting employees at the 200 to 300 level because the economy is so healthy, and we have such a diverse economy locally that a company could come in and make those jobs available,|quot| he said. |quot|Now, if it was 1,200 or 1,500 (workers), I think that would be a real challenge.|quot|

Karr agreed that as more companies come to town, the chamber might have to become more aggressive in its efforts to bring workers here. He said right now, the chamber is participating in a regional survey designed to help chamber officials determine how the organization can better address labor issues such as recruiting and retention.

NorthStar Battery is the second company Miller has brought to the Partnership Industrial Center. He also is the founder of Contico International, which was the first company to go into the PIC.

Miller, who lives in Florida, said at the press conference that he'd originally earmarked his home state for the location of NorthStar Battery. He said several factors, including Springfield's pro-business attitude, the vibrant community and the good work ethic, as well as his positive experience in bringing Contico International to town, contributed to the decision to build the NorthStar plant in the Partnership Industrial Center.