Employment up at local manufacturers

While the number of manufacturers in Fitchburg and Leominster is similar to that of two years ago, the number of people employed at these businesses has increased by 8 percent over that same time period, according to manufacturers directories compiled by the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce.

Chamber president and CEO Roy Nascimento said these increases reflect an improving economy and several recent expansions by local manufacturers.

“I think overall manufacturing is doing well,” he said. “We’re a very dynamic region and very well positioned to continue to benefit from the growth in manufacturing.”

In 2015, a manufacturing directory published by the chamber, listed 64 manufacturers, employing at total of 2,336 employees in Fitchburg. The 2017 directory indicated a drop in manufacturers, to 59 or 60, but an increase in total number of employees to about 2,426.

In the same period Leominster, saw a net gain of two manufacturers, bringing the number up from 96 to 98 as well as an increase in employees from about 3,400 to 3,815.

Manufacturing directories are compiled periodically by a consultant hired by the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce and distributed to businesses in the area. While occasionally a business notifies the chamber of an omission after the booklet’s publication, the directory is meant to be a comprehensive list of the roughly 450 manufactures in North Central Massachusetts, according to Nascimento.

The information in the booklet — including location, president or CEO, phone number, number of employees and industry type — is provided to the chamber through a survey of the local manufacturers and the chambers own information.

“Information always changes,” Nascimento said. “Even now some of that information might have changed, but we do reach out to all of these manufacturers. We use various sources including our own database.”

Much of the increase in manufacturing employment in Fitchburg can be attributed to Simonds International, a cutting tools manufacturer on Intervale Road. The company employed 170 people in 2015 — a number which increased to 520 in 2017, according to the manufacturing guide.

An office furniture manufacturer, AIS, Inc., is in the process of moving to Leominster from their current headquarters in Hudson. The move is bringing 500 manufacturing jobs to the city.

Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella said bringing the company to the city was a long and complicated process, but ultimately AIS found the “perfect building” on Tucker Drive.

“That’s probably the biggest thing to happen to the area in 4 or 5 years,” he said.

New England Wire Products, a company that employs 109 people, also moved out of Fitchburg and into Leominster during the same two-year span.

Though New England Wire Products, Simmonds International and AIS are large employers, some of the businesses listed as manufacturers by the chamber are smaller — many with less than 10 employees and some with only one.

In 2017, the average manufacturer in Fitchburg employed 40.4 employees, up from 36.5 in 2015. In Leominster, the average number of employees also increased, from 35.4 to 38.9.

Nascimento said one in four jobs in the region are manufacturing jobs and both large and small employers are important to the economy.

“We certainly have a lot of small and mid-sized manufacturers and that’s a good thing,” he said. “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and that’s where you see a tremendous amount of growth.”

“We certainly don’t want to forget about those smaller businesses that are so important to our community and to our economy. But we would also like to get those bigger companies as well.”

Increases in automation during the 20th century made manufacturing in the area and across the U.S. more efficient, but decreased the number of jobs, Mazzarella said.

“It’s just that it doesn’t take as many people anymore,” he said.

Katherine Jewell, an assistant professor of history at Fitchburg State Univeristy, said while “deindustrialization” is usually thought to be something that happened in the 1970s, northern Massachusetts was beginning to see its effects even prior to the 1920s.

Technological advancements in textile manufacturing in the teens and twenties meant less skilled labor was needed to run the mills. While some of the remaining technical mill jobs continued to exist in the area, eventually the unskilled jobs were sent to the Southern United States she said.

She said low skilled workers began taking retail and service jobs, causing a cultural and political shift in the area, such as a shift away from support for New Deal type policies and increase in Reagan Democrats.

“You don’t have the same identification with manufacturing in the region even though manufacturing still exists,” she said.

Dr. Michael T. Greenwood, a professor of management and entrepreneurship at FSU, said many of the manufacturing jobs, which in more recent years, have been sent out of the country, are returning to the United States.

“We’ve seen some positive signs with regards to growth and precision molding and high tech fabrication,” he said. “I think we (north central Massachusetts) have a local expertise in plastics and fabrication that we’re still leveraging to this day.”

Greenwood said manufacturers look at a variety of factors when deciding where to locate, such as cost of labor, which is linked to the cost of living.

He and others see north central Massachusetts as a future growth area for manufacturing, because manufacturers currently based in the Boston area can access inexpensive labor and rent in this region.

“That’s an area we think we can bring in the future,” Mazzarella said.

Greenwood said cities in the region are also willing to work with manufacturers.

“They can find plentiful land, manufacturing warehouses ready to go and a city government willing to assist with expedited permitting,” he said.

Fitchburg Mayor Stephen DiNatale said many of the manufacturing jobs in the area are skilled labor, particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Vocational programs such as those at Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School and job fairs promoting manufacturing, including an upcoming event at Goodrich Academy, are important to creating an maintaining a workforce manufacturers would value, he said.

“Those are components we need to maintain and keep healthy,” DiNatale said, adding the region could improve in this area.

Once in the region, manufacturers often move between neighboring communities.

Custom Printing and Design, a small printer company, moved from Leominster to Fitchburg between 2015 and 2017, according to the manufacturers guide. Pallets and shipping container company, Great Northern Dunnage moved from Fitchburg to Westminster. A Leominster sound system company, Alto Aviation, moved to Sterling.

Nascimento said these small moves are often a matter of manufacturers growing and seeking available space to fit their changing needs.

“Every business has individual needs in terms of their space,” he said.

According to Nascimento, the vacancy rate for modern industrial space in Leominster and Fitchburg was 3.2 percent in January, down a whole percentage point from a year prior.

Leominster still has vacant space, but the area is beginning to reach its limitations, he said. Fitchburg has space, but because many of the buildings are older, the structures are often better suited to small companies. When Westminster completes its industrial park, a large amount of space will open up to manufacturers, he said.

Mazzarella said keeping existing businesses in the area is also about creating personal relationships with the owners.

“That’s why building those relationships is important because they’re always going to try to give you a chance,” he said.

Brian Jansson is the vice president of finance at Boutwell, Owens & Co., a printed paperboard company that makes products like the cardboard packaging placed around tubes of toothpaste.

He said Boutwell, Owens & Co., a 130-year-old company that moved from Leominster to Fitchburg in 1977, stays in the region for its employees.

“Employees being the most valuable assets (means) it would be difficult to move,” he said.

Though the company had difficulty securing the level of high-speed internet it needed, Jansson said Boutwell, Owens & Co. has since overcome that issue and the city has been supportive of their business. In the past two years, the manufacturer has added 10 employees, bringing the total to 150.

“Our goal is continue to grow our company,” he said.

Greenwood believes this region is a good area to reach for that goal.

“When you look at it pragmatically, north central Massachusetts is ground zero for manufacturing and economic growth over the next decade.”

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