Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corporation

Growth in jobs charted

Oct 14, 2009
By MICKEY POWELL - Bulletin Staff Writer. New and expanding businesses in Henry County and Martinsville during the past five years have created almost 2,400 jobs and invested nearly $204 million in their facilities, the Martinsville City Council learned Tuesday.

Mark Heath, president and chief executive officer of the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. (EDC), told the council that the firms created 2,388 jobs, and their investments totaled $203.54 million.

Manufacturing represented the largest share of those figures at 1,060 jobs and $172.19 million in investments, Heath said.

Although the community has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs in the past decade, Heath said the numbers prove that “manufacturing still is very important in our community.”

Office operations created 873 new jobs and investments totaling $10.55 million, while distribution businesses created 263 jobs and $11.2 million in investments. Small businesses created 192 new jobs and $9.6 million in investments, a document provided to the council shows.

Among the companies that created the new jobs and investments were RTI International Metals, Monogram Food Solutions, American of Martinsville, CPFilms and StarTek, the document shows.

Heath said that although the EDC helped secure the jobs and investments, it cannot take full credit. He indicated that some of the credit goes to the companies themselves as well as community support.

The EDC is funded by the county and city, The Harvest Foundation and the Chamber’s Partnership for Economic Growth. The latter organization is an affiliate of the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce.

Since 2004, the EDC has received a total of $8.5 million from those funding sources, the document shows.

For every dollar, the return on the investment has amounted to more than $23.88, Heath said. He did not explain the figure.

The EDC continues to aggressively pursue new businesses and industries. Heath said that EDC employees were out of town for three of the past five weeks, calling on executives at various companies and discussing with them the benefits of operating in Henry County and Martinsville.

He emphasized that to attract companies, the EDC cannot just send them information about the community. Rather, staff must visit those companies, convince their executives to visit the community and host them when they visit, he said.

Currently, the EDC has eight or nine “active prospects” — companies that have sent executives to visit the community, Heath said.

The shell building recently constructed in the county’s Patriot Centre at Beaver Creek industrial park helped lure some of them here, he said.

In addition, the EDC recently has had about 20 leads on other companies that might be interested in locating here and is making contact with them, Heath added.

Councilman Danny Turner asked Heath whether the EDC, through its tourism office, is positioning the community to lure visitors among people traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway as part of the road’s 75th anniversary.

Turner said that information on the area is provided at attractions along the parkway, but he admitted that is “something we need to do a better job of.”

That could be among responsibilities of the EDC’s next director of tourism. Heath said he hopes the position can be filled by mid-November.

The EDC’s previous tourism director, Debbie Robinson, recently resigned.