Manchester industrial base diverse

Part of a monthly series looking at economic issues in small towns

CEDAR RAPIDS — The 'help wanted' signs are out in Manchester as several of the Delaware County seat's largest employers attempt to fill essential jobs.

Manchester has a diverse industrial base, ranging from state-of-the-art flight displays made by the 250 employees of Rockwell Collins to lead-acid batteries manufactured by the 390 employees of Exide Technologies.

Henderson Products, with 360 employees, produces 'dump bodies,' snow plows, sand and salt spreaders, anti-ice systems, de-icing systems and special purpose truck bodies used by cities, counties and states from Alaska to New York. The company also ships plows and other products to China and Russia.

The 200 employees at XL Specialized Trailers manufacture custom trailers for the commercial, construction, agriculture, oil and natural gas, and wind energy sectors.

Welders are in demand at both.

Steve Hoeger, senior vice president of Henderson Products, said the 50-year-old company is working with area high schools to recruit potential welders.

'We're giving young people the opportunity to come to work for us straight out of high school,' Hoeger said. 'We will train them how to weld at our cost with an on-site professional weld engineer.

'We will pay them while they are in training and give them a job when they are done with their training, We want to provide opportunities for people in Manchester so they don't feel they have to drive to Cedar Rapids, Dubuque or Waterloo.'

How serious is the shortage of welders?

'We're really getting desperate at this point,' said Cari Wright, director of human resources at Henderson Products. 'Our lead times for product delivery are getting longer. We have plenty of business, but we need welders to produce our products.'

While Henderson Products is recruiting from Delaware and surrounding counties, XL Specialized Trailers is going beyond the state's borders in search of welders.

'We are recruiting from some southern weld schools,' said Steve Fairbanks, president and CEO of XL Specialized Trailers. 'We have to import employees, and that has its own set of challenges.

'They've graduated from high school and gone to technical school, but they're 19 and 20 years old.

'Eric (Branson, human resources director) becomes a surrogate father when they get here. He teaches them how to set up a checking account at a bank and all the other aspects of living on their own.

'It has had a lot of implications for business. How many policies and procedures are out there for employees under 21?'

Fairbanks said one of the biggest challenges involves finding housing for new employees.

'If you're lucky enough to recruiting a welder with a young family, they're going to want to rent a two-bedroom house,' he said. 'Single young welders are looking for a one-bedroom apartment.

'There aren't a lot of options for them in Manchester. We've talked with people at the city and we know it's on their radar.'

A comprehensive housing market analysis was performed by Maxwell Research Inc. of Minneapolis for the city of Manchester. The study, released at the end of January, identified a potential demand for 415 housing units through 2025.

About 42 percent of the total demand was for general occupancy housing, while senior housing accounted for the remaining 58 percent of the demand. Market-rate general housing had the highest need — 70 units.

Although there is demand for new single-family housing in Manchester, Maxwell Research contends the existing lot supply will meet the community's need in the short term. There is an immediate need for new maintenance-free housing units, such as condominiums.

'We have low rental rates and the rental units we have are full,' said Tim Vick, Manchester city manager. 'Because our rental rates are low, it's hard to build new rental units and price them to provide a return on the investment.'

While finding housing for new employees moving to the community is a challenge, Donna Boss, director of Delaware County Economic Development, said developing additional amenities also is important.

'I've told several people that Manchester needs a country-western bar,' Boss said. 'The folks who are moving here from southern states are used to two-stepping, so we need to look outside the box in terms of what we can provide for entertainment.'

Hoeger said Manchester offers a number of positives for employers.

'We have good quality people with a strong work ethic and we enjoy being in a small community that appreciates us,' he said. 'In 2004, we were really struggling with an expansion and we went to the city of Manchester asking for some tax increment financing (TIF) assistance. The city really stepped up to the plate.

'We were able to add 65,000 square feet and that was really the impetus for our growth over the last 12 years.'

Boss said Manchester has benefited from homegrown industries such as Henderson Products and XL Specialized Trailers as well as companies such as Exide Technologies, plastic-bags manufacturer Laddawn and Rockwell Collins that have chosen to locate plants in the community of 5,200.

Boss said growth and retention of existing industries is the primary focus of Delaware County Economic Development.

'We also want to do everything we can to assist the Regional Medical Center, which is our largest employer with more than 430 employees,' she said.

'Regional Medical Center is in the midst of a major expansion. We would like to recruit a business with white-collar jobs that would support the medical center.'

Not an option: Products' custom nature precludes automation

When manufacturers are unable to find skilled workers, they sometimes turn to automation as a way to meet demand for their products.

That's not an option for Henderson Products and XL Specialized Trailers in Manchester as they seek to recruit welders needed to produce large, custom products such as snow plows, dump bodies and massive trailers with multiple axles that haul bulldozers, earthmovers, wind turbines and towers, and heavy equipment used in the Bakken oil fields.

'Henderson does not have any model numbers, per se,' said Steve Hoeger, senior vice president. 'When someone wants a dump body for sand or salt, they tell us how long, how high and the kind of steel they want, and then we build it.

'We've built our systems and manufacturing processes around the concept of custom manufacturing. We understood that if you're going to sell a limited offering of products, you're opening yourself up to a lot more competition.

'We also wanted to be in an industry that's not easily transferred internationally. If you're going to produce 100,000 of something, you can go to China and have it made for less.'

Steve Fairbanks, president and CEO of XL Specialized Trailers, said his company is even more specialized in terms of the manufacturing process than Henderson Products.

'We build a trailer specific to the way a customer wants it,' Fairbanks said. 'There are commodity trailers where companies can set up a production line with robots and similar things.

'We would love to be able to do that, but our trailers are so different that it's not really possible. 'Specialized' is our niche in the market and we've grown our presence in the marketplace pretty substantially with that strategy.'