Brick Maker Builds Economic Growth
Indiana business expansion aided by South Central Indiana REMC
Since opening its doors in 1967, General Shale has been a fixture in the Morgan County business community in central Indiana, and a major employer in the town of Mooresville. Among other buildings, General Shale bricks have been used to make the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta and the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington D.C.
So when the company decided it would nearly double its production capacity by building a new facility in Mooresville, that continuing commitment was welcome news to the community which acted swiftly to assist the project.
As a result, in 2007 General Shale added a new $30 million manufacturing plant to its two existing plants in Mooresville, increasing its brick making capability by 90 million bricks annually. That extra capacity brings the company’s total production at its Mooresville operation to 200 million bricks per year. The state-of-the-art automated facility features the latest robotic technology and created 25 new equipment operator and technician jobs.
Helping one of its largest customers, and a major employer in its service area, grow and prosper is an important part of the job at South Central Indiana REMC, the electrical utility in Morgan County and a member of the Hoosier Energy Power Network.
“We worked with General Shale on their generating needs, and we did some new electrical installations and assisted with their rates,” said Kevin Sump, president and CEO of the South Central Indiana REMC.
Morgan County Economic Development Corporation partnered in the project and helped secure real and personal tax abatement on General Shale’s $30 million capital investment. Because of the size of the investment, the company qualified for the full 10-year abatement period, noted Jeff Pipkin, acting director of the EDC.
General Shale has raw material for its brick-making plant, and the company also has rail service into the facility, Pipkin said.
“They’ve always been able to get a qualified work force here in Morgan County,” he added.
For the company’s added electrical needs, South Central Indiana REMC installed a half-mile of underground electrical cable hooked up to 2,500 kva transformers and added two 500 kva transformers to power the air scrubbers installed for General Shale’s new plant.
“They’ve just been a great help to us,” said Mike Stacy, plant manager for General Shale in Mooresville. “We had to run a whole new power grid over to the new plant site and they gave us everything we needed.”