DAYTON FIRM PLANS MOVE, DOUBLING OF WORKFORCE
A Dayton manufacturer is planning a nearly $4 million investment in a new home and a doubling of its workforce in five years.
Scott Reeve, president of Composite Advantage, is planning to renovate 100,000 square feet of what will become a new factory in Dayton, at 750 Rosedale Drive in Southern Dayton View.
Composite Advantage bought the Rosedale building for $1.45 million. It’s a 400,000-square foot former tire factory and warehouse, and Reeve hopes to have operations at the site in late May or early June.
“We’re actually tearing down the roof of more than 100,000 square feet of this and making that into an outdoor work yard,” he said Friday. “Our products are fairly large. After we make a lot of the stuff through the manufacturing process, we have to assemble it into modules to ship. We’re doing that outside.”
That will leave the company with 300,000 square feet of space inside.
Composite makes decks for increasingly popular pedestrian bridges, as well as equipment for the U.S. Navy, such as boat bumpers, with composite panels fabricated for the bumpers.
“We’re talking about additional jobs over the next five years,” Reeve said. “Basically, where we’re at, we needed more room to carry out our 2017 work.”
Today, Composite has 95 employees. Reeve envisions hiring up to 90 more people over the next five years.
In 2010, when Reeve’s business won the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce Soin Award for Innovation, he had 20 employees.
“It’s basically just a ramp-up,” Reeve said. “Right now, we are looking for employees. Just like most companies. The majority of our employees are manufacturing operators who are making the parts.”
The company has been able to “give back” by hiring Dayton residents, Reeve said. “Business has been good.”
The company enjoys three growth markets: First, pedestrian bridges. Second, infrastructure for the Navy, including panels and materials for docking or mooring of ships, submarines and aircraft carriers.
Its third growth market: fender protection systems, fences in the water that help protect bridge piers.
“The big benefit (of composite material) in a lot of cases, is the corrosion systems,” Reeve said. “They last longer. Some of the best growth markets for us is something that has been sitting in the water forever.”
He has never been tempted to
move closer to a coast or a Navy base, he said. First, Navy bases are all over the nation. And he needs to have his company close to interstates for his extensive shipping.
“We ship to Virginia, Florida, Washington state, Hawaii,” Reeve said. “Quite frankly, being in Dayton and being here puts us in the middle of everything.”
There’s also the matter of expertise. The innovations and knowhow are here in Dayton.
“The manufacturing technique that we use, there are some aspects of that that are technically specialized,” Reeve said. “The people who do that are here.”
The company’s current 401 Kiser St. location is up for sale. Though a couple of parties are looking at it, Reeve said a sale is not imminent.
Contact Thomas Gnau at 937-2252390 or email tom.Gnau@coxinc. com. Contact Cornelius Frolik at 937225-0749 or email Cornelius. Frolik@coxinc.com.