BY RICHARD MASSEY
Contributing Writer, Delta Business Journal
In late March, a New York businessman whose company specializes
in the manufacture of molded fiberglass products took the plunge and located
a manufacturing plant in Clarksdale.
John D’Amico, the Chief Executive Officer of Pennsylvania-based
Molded Acoustical Products of Easton, Inc., (MAP) made the decision to
establish a plant in Clarksdale after a large contingent of Mississippi
leaders convinced him that it was a good idea.
MAP, a multi-million dollar business that specializes in the
manufacture of automobile hood linings, fire walls, muffler fillings and
interior acoustical linings for Volvo trucks, is leasing the Spec
Building from the Coahoma County Industrial Authority with the option to
buy the building within two years.
“This is where I think we’ll stay. This is where I think we’ll
invest,” says D’Amico at the March ribbon cutting as Gov. Ronnie Musgrove
and others looked on. “We hope we live up to your expectations.”
With a handshake and a verbal agreement, D’Amico and a host
of players from Jackson and Coahoma County initiated the conclusion of
a search that had been under way for more than 10 years.
D’Amico had been interested in opening a plant location in Mississippi
for over a decade, but after a near miss in Senatobia 12 years ago, the
Mississippi scenario drifted to the back burner.
Then, President Clinton came to town in July and talked big
about economic development in poverty-stricken areas like the Mississippi
Delta.
Wayne Leonard, Chief Executive Officer of New Orleans-based
Entergy Corp., was part of Clinton’s entourage, and talk of a Mississippi
plant for Molded Acoustical Products resurfaced.
Eventually, Entergy Mississippi, a subsidiary of Entergy Corp.,
entered the fray and the road toward Coahoma County was suddenly illuminated
with direction markers and welcome signs.
Carolyn Shanks, president and chief executive officer of Entergy,
worked with the Delta Council, the Mississippi Department of Economic and
Community Development, the Clarksdale/Coahoma County Chamber of Commerce/Industrial
Foundation and Industrial Authority, the Clarksdale Board of Mayor and
Commissioners, the Coahoma County Board of Supervisors,
Clarksdale Public Utilities and Coahoma Community College.
When Mississippi came calling, D’Amico liked what he saw.
Waiting for him was not only a county and city delegation hungry for outside
investment, but a vacant 55,000 square-foot industrial building that was
“pretty damn adequate for our Southern operations,” and a VoTech center
where employees could be trained.
Over the next few months, negotiations ensued, and in March,
D’Amico, along with all the players that assisted in the project, convened
for a reception and ribbon cutting at the Spec Building located on U.S.
Highway 49 South where the plant will be located.
D’Amico was interested in Mississippi as a hub to serve MAP’s
clients in the Southeast, Mexico, Texas and Kansas City. The Clarksdale
plant will be a key factor in reducing the freight costs incurred by MAP’s
clients. MAP operates plants in Easton, Pa., and Elkhart, Ind., and employees
roughly 200 people company wide.
A few days after the ribbon cutting the mold press and the die
cut machine arrived and shortly afterwards, a shipment of raw materials
— fiberglass, strand e-glass, basalt, mineral wool fibers, ceramic fibers,
polyester fibers and Thinsulate — arrived by truck.
Tito Melendez, the MAP research and development technician,
remained in Clarksdale for a few weeks and began training two employees.
Melendez has been with MAP for 12 years and will train the floor
manager who will eventually run the Clarksdale plant. Some of the base
training will be handled at Coahoma Community College.
D’Amico said that the new plant will start out with only a handful
of employees who will serve only one client. But after all the wrinkles
are ironed out — and D’Amico said that there will be wrinkles — the plant
will probably expand to roughly 53 employees.
At the first-Monday meeting of the supervisors, County Administrator
Hugh Jack Stubbs was authorized to file a grant application in order to
fund some electrical upgrades that the Spec Building needs to be more efficient.
The grant funds that could be used for the upgrades is part
of an incentive package that will develop over the coming months.
Under QS 9000/ISO 9002 certification, D’Amico said that the
manufacture of the product is under rigid regulations. Though the work
requires only an intermediate skill level, “there’s a lot of minute details
to the product ... in order for it to be reproducible. ... If not done
properly, we can lose our shirts,” says D’Amico.
When asked what MAP’s gross receipts were last year, D’Amico
says only that the company was private and that “we don’t do too bad.”