Precision, Pulley and Idler was welcomed to Maysville/Mason County during a reception on Thursday.
PPI is based in Pella, Iowa, and is an industry leader in the major bulk and material handling component industry, according to Maysville-Mason County Industrial Development Authority Executive Director Owen McNeill. It was founded in 1977 and currently operates 12 facilities including manufacturing facilities, warehouses, service centers and a training center in the United States, as well as international facilities in Chile and Canada. The company is 100 percent employee owned, he said.
The company will move into an existing building on Progress Way, off Kentucky 9, near Enviroflight, according to Roger Brown, president and CEO of PPI, and plans to make significant investments over the next several years at the facility. The investment will include building costs as well as adding equipment to fulfill customers orders, he said.
The project will create 134 full-time jobs over the next 10 years.
Brown said several areas were considered for the new plant before the company decided on Maysville.
“We looked at a number of other places,” he said. “It’s more than finances. We want to have an impact on where we’re located. We like the small town feel. We want to be a part of the community.”
According to Brown, the company has an “aggressive timeline.”
“We want to be up and running in September,” he said. “We need to get a workforce, being in equipment and get started. We’re here because we’re growing and we want to continue to grow. This product line is relatively new. We do a lot of business with FedEx and UPS. We’re now branching out into warehouse distribution, so that includes the Amazons, the Targets and the Walmarts. That’s where we’re headed. That growth potential is tremendous. We’re excited about that. We also want to offer good, living wages and we think we do that. We think we offer some of the best benefits in the industry.”
Brown said the company is an employee-owned company.
“Our company is 100 percent owned by our employees,” he said. “Every individual, after one year, becomes an owner and gets shares in our company. The longer they’re there, they can accumulate stocks. That’s a huge benefit, no doubt about it. If you’re part owner, it gives you skin in the game, which hopefully makes you more interested in what you do.”
Brown said he was excited to be in Maysville.
“We’re excited to be here and we’re excited for the growth potential here,” he said. “We want to continue and expand our company here and to grow here.”
PPI Vice President of Sales Brian Simpson said he was also excited about the company moving to Maysville.
“We’re excited about the opportunity to bring jobs here,” he said. “Moving forward, we think there are some great opportunities here. We know when there are good jobs, it’s good for Maysville, it’s good for the community and it’s good for families. We’re going to need skilled laborers who want to be a part of our culture.”
Maysville Mayor Charlie Cotterill said PPI will be a great asset for the area.
“Well, I really had nothing to do with this,” he said. “But this is the best news the city of Maysville has had for years. Quality jobs where people make a living wage and take care of families. This is absolutely wonderful and we appreciate it. We’ve always had a good workforce. We’re so glad to have you and anything we can do to assist to make everything easier, we’re all on board.”
Mason County Judge-Executive Joe Pfeffer said the city of Maysville and Mason County worked together to bring PPI to the area for some time.
“We wanted to make this happen since we found out they were looking to expand,” he said. “This project had a lot of fingerprints on it while we worked on it. I kept after Chris Hopper for awhile and said he needed to come to my office. I got a call from Chris that Ian, Brian and Roger Brown wanted to know if they could do a tour of Maysville. I told them Owen McNeill and I were at a conference and asked if I could bring him along. It was about like feeding a steak to a pit bull. He took to it and didn’t let go. It’s nice to have someone like that on board.”
Pfeffer said he and McNeill, along with others in the community, worked hard to bring PPI to the area.
“There were a lot of mornings I’d be waking up and thinking about it. Owen would be doing the same. I’d be heading to his office and he’d be heading to mine. We’d meet. It was a great working relationship. One of the things I think allowed us to proceed and do as well as we did, PPI is a company that is very clear in their communications. They knew where their vision was and where they wanted to be and we had a goal and we had to work to get to that. We knew what we needed to do and where we needed to be.”
McNeill said the reception shows the area is open for new businesses.
“Today’s events highlight like never before that Maysville and Mason County are certainly open for business. Economic development is a community sport and today’s welcoming reception hosted by the Maysville Mason County Industrial Development Authority, highlighted that fact and provided the perfect venue to celebrate our area’s newest industrial employer, PPI. The tremendous amount of support represented in the attendance at the reception shows our community’s support for PPI and appreciation for their investment. It truly was a wonderful venue to highlight all the assets and agencies that came together to make this deal happen,” he said. “Overall, today’s theme was that of celebration. Each of the above entities work extremely hard, day in and day out to make our community a better place. We wanted to take the opportunity to highlight each of them and reassure representatives with PPI that they made the correct choice.”
McNeill also said there were a lot of people involved in bringing PPI to the area.
“The Welcome Reception for PPI was a way that we, as a community, could celebrate PPI’s investment and highlight all the hard work by so many. From a financing standpoint, Security Bank and Trust, Bank of Maysville and People’s Bank were represented, as well as representatives with the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development and other state agencies. Our educational and workforce partners such as Maysville Community and Technical College, and the Kentucky Career Center were present as well,” he said.
Former Maysville Mayor David Cartmell said he was pleased to have PPI opening in Maysville.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “Things worked our flawlessly between this company, the judge and Owen. I never even heard about until later. They met in February 2017 and we didn’t’ talk about it until May 2017. That’s how secretive it was. So, yes, things went well. The right people pushed it and we have a lot of local help here. It’s just gratifying to have something like this happen here.”
PPI Human Resources Manager Leslie Johnston said the company is planning to begin accepting applications in May.
“We’re looking at May to begin accepting applications, with the bulk of our hiring beginning in June,” she said.
According to a release from PPI, the company plans to hire around 15-20 people during the initial phase. The company will need welders, machinists and assemblers.
Applications will be accepted beginning during the month of May and applications will be assessed in June with candidates being interviewed on June 21 by PPI leadership.
More information can be found at ppi-global.com or by calling the Director of Business Services Jeremy Faulkner at the Kentucky Career Center at 606-564-3347.
