In his closing remarks at the 93rd Annual Dinner Meeting of the Marietta Area Chamber of Commerce, featured speaker, Dale Fallat, Chairman of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, reminded us of the words of Wilbur Wright when asked how a person could succeed in life, “ First, pick out a good father and mother, then begin life in Ohio.”
Begin life in Ohio…so that’s the secret to success. Last Monday we focused on “Innovation, Evolution and the Pioneer Spirit” as we discovered, once again, that Ohio offers many resources for business and is unparalleled for its unique metro-rural quality of life. If you’re a country boy or a city girl, Ohio can be home. If you want to hike in the woods or applaud symphonic music, Ohio can offer both. If you want to be an artist or a space-age inventor, Ohio has the resources to make it happen.
As we learned, Ohio is part of the Great Lakes Economy, which is the third largest economy in the world after U.S. and Japan. The U.S. economy is $11 trillion; Japan is at $4.6 trillion; the Great Lakes region is $3.8 trillion trailed by Germany at $2.7 trillion. Ohio alone is the 26th largest economy in the world.
We all know that Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati are major economic engines in the state. We often fail to realize (or remember) that Washington County plays a vital role in the economy of the state, of the country and of the world. Here we have a strong cluster of polymer companies producing billions of pounds of products every year. These companies are well-known names in our valley: Chevron-Phillips, Solvay Advanced Polymers, RJF International, Dimex, and Mondo Polymers.
The world’s largest styrenic block copolymer plant is Kraton Polymers outside of Belpre. Marietta is also a cluster for the flexible magnet industry. The technology for making flexible magnets was spun out of the former BF Goodrich plant. We’ve been called the Magnet Capital of the World
A temperature-controlled cabinet cluster of companies now operates in Marietta, thanks to entrepreneur Dick Bergen. Bergen founded Forma Scientific, which is now owned by Thermo Fisher Scientific and employs over 300 people. The facility manufactures incubators and cryogenic freezers. Grimm Scientific, Caron Products, Farrar Scientific and Elpro Services also operate in the community providing a range of products and services in the temperature controlled cabinet and ancillary products industry. Innovation didn’t stop with Bergen. In the last 30 years, over 200 patents originate in Washington County.
Governor Strickland recognized successful women entrepreneurs and announced recently that Shari Brown and Billie McClelland, who own and operate Polymer Services of Ohio, based here in Washington County, as the winner of the Governor’s Keys to Success Manufacturing/Technology award.
Southeastern Ohio has never been truly isolated from the world. Our landmark Lafayette Hotel was named in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, who visited the city in 1825 at a site near the hotel. He wasn’t the last foreign traveler to our soils. Today many other nations (France, Germany, Belgium, India, England, Luxembourg, Australia, and Switzerland) have discovered Washington County as a place to do business
A rare instance of “job insourcing” occurred recently an Indian company, E2E Serwiz Solutions, a Tata Company, located a customer support operations in the Reno Business Complex. Imagine, they “insourced” jobs to Reno.
As MACC’s Chairman of the Board Dave Archer quoted from the 1916 chamber dinner program, “Marietta has more to offer us than business opportunities. It is the kind of city you want to live in as well as do business. It is a city with opportunities plus. We are lucky to live in a city where there are opportunities for business and where you can really enjoy living forever and a day. Marietta is that kind of city.”
Begin life in Ohio…live and work in Marietta – a city with opportunities plus!
