There were 20 employees in Aurora, Ill. facility, some of whom have already relocated to Ohio.
Since July, the company expanded a backlog of orders from 800,000 pounds of tubint to more than three million pounds now. That’s the difference of sending out more than 60 truckloads instead of about 20.
The now rehabbed building was purchased in part with $150,000 in Montgomery County ED/GE funds and including machinery, Phoenix has made a total investment of about $2.5 million in the project, including machines that have not yet been moved here.
Kasperski said he did not know how long it would take to move all his Aurora operation to Trotwood, but it could take a couple of years.
In 1997, Kasperski started the Cleary Company, a manufacturing business that provides engineering, design, machining and fabrication services. He and a partner started what became Phoenix Tube in 1999, eventually parting ways with Kasperski buying the assets in 2009 although he continued to live in Farmersville.
“It became too much to travel back and forth,” Kasperski said, “and we had too much volume and not enough capacity.”
Phoenix Tube has a 30,000 square-foot building in Aurora. The Trotwood building is more than 100,000 square feet.
At a ribbon cutting Tuesday, Kasperski said his company would be shipping its first product from the facility on Wolf Creek Drive.
Kasperski previously held jobs in Franklin, Miamisburg and Piqua before he and wife Lisa - a registered nurse in Middletown - moved to Farmersville, where they live with their three children.
When he decided to move Phoenix Tube, he looked at sites in Indiana and Greenville, Ohio, before settling on the Trotwood location.
“This is a wonderful day in Trotwood,” said mayor Joyce Cameron. “We welcome you.”
City manager Mike Lucking was unable to attend the ceremony, but Trotwood development director Carl Daugherty said Lucking should take a lot of credit for filling a building that had been vacant for three to four years.
“His finger prints are all over this,” Daugherty said.
About the Author