Local company does well when things go to hell
Sandbags. Filled a lot of them if you were in the Army, and it never was fun.
However when natural disasters strike, floods, fires and oil spills, there is always a run on them. This is really good if you are Dayton Bag and Burlap in East Dayton, up on the Huffman Hill. War is good for them too- I remember when before the first Iraq war, the order had them working around the clock. They even have a filled sandbags- selling dirt and making money.
Typically, they make a lot of things for the nursery/forestry business. They’ve expanded into things like fiberglass parts for the automotive industry, but there is nothing like getting an order for 3.5 million sandbags to keep the sewing machines humming. The only hold-up on production right now is the burlap, which takes three months to arrive via ship from India. They’ve added employees (Vietnamese immigrants btw) and are working 12 hours a day sewing 350,000 bags a week. They are also delivering liners made of burlap for the booms used to drag the surface for oil. Apparently, burlap, which is all natural, is the best thing to absorb the sludge without causing additional problems.
While this isn’t exactly “creative class” jobs, they are jobs and they are being created right here in the City of Dayton. While the reason they are hiring is kind of depressing, it’s good to know that some business in Dayton is doing extremely well.
Lots of businesses all over the region are doing just fine. There are a few bad apples who are closing down or shedding jobs, but for the most part, businesses are hanging in there. I happen to work for one that is growing revenue by double digits in 2010 after a flat 2009.
That said, everyone is concerned and less aggressive than they used to be, but it’s a myth to think only a slight few are doing well.
City of Dayton on the other hand has been declining in good times and bad. That’s a structural problem that will take massive overhauls to correct.
I just learned that the cannibalism at Austin Pike has grown yet again.
Now add “Endolite” to the list.
Dayton Superior: cannibalized
Teradata: cannibalized
Crane America: cannibalized
Endolite: cannibalized
Matrix Systems: cannibalized
Motoman: cannibalized
Optivus Proton Therapy: ????????
I’ve thought several times about buying the domain name: AustinPikeScorecard.com
@Steve- and no one will admit that Austin Road is just another shell game- being played so those who pay to play- get paid. Thanks for the list. Optivus wasn’t local- and Kettering Health Network is racing to beat them to the punch- may not happen.
While this isn’t exactly “creative class” jobs, they are jobs and they are being created right here in the City of Dayton. (David Esrati)
Yeah, and a giant angus cheeseburger smothered with ‘srooms and onions and dripping with cholesterol ain’t gourmet, haute cuisine either, but sometimes it’s what a body needs. So why is it “depressing” that a local company is doing a boom shaka-laka manufacturing items that everyone from our military to villages on the Mississippi River need? From fire extinguishers to defibrillators to F-22s, there is enterprise and necessity in making things one hopes to have but never use. And what, Dear David, is so special about all these mythical “creative class” jobs anyway? This bamboozle commenced when Richard Florida rode into town and sold everyone from David Esrati to the editorial staff of the DDN his particular brand of snake-oil. Yessir, this modern day equivalent to Professor Harold Hill said, we got trouble, right here in River City, which will be cured if we could just have more gay bars. The hoopla and hype that followed was as funny as it was revealing. If this town were only more diverse they opined, Dayton could be the American equivalent of Paris’ left bank. Reality check; this blue collar town gained prominence with such inventions as earth shaking as the airplane, as practical as the cash register and as humble as the beer can pull-top. Each was an invention that sold itself; and all of the wishing for a Bohemian Dayton as as impractical and impossible as the Old Bandito’s wish for a career as a porn star. Besides that, we already have a enclave of the “creative class.” It is behind the Dayton Mall, where, thanks to the HB-1 visa, a whole community of smart-farts reside. But they count New Delhi, Bombay and Bangalore as their home towns, and they soon will be going back…..
They’ve added employees (Vietnamese immigrants btw) and are working 12 hours a day (David Esrati)
On the north side of town, Morning Pride is cranking out firemen’s safety apparel with a large number of Vietnamese doing the necessary work. The sewing machine, thought of as a staple of 1960s era Home Ec classes and a symbol of pre-feminist female oppression, has become a forgotten and neglected part of Americana. But put a Vietnamese at a Singer, give her a handful of rags and enough thread, and in a hot-flash she’ll crank out a three piece suit that Sean Combs would salivate over. Be it genetic or just lack of Betty Friedan type brainwashing, the Vietnamese are to the sewing machine what Payton Manning is to the football. And the Old Bandito swears by bags from Dayton Bag and Burlap, for he would never leave the house without a genuine DB&B bag over his head….