Loading...
 

BoGarEnterprisesInc

Sour Grapes and Saddle Sores

George Hirst

Bo/Gar Enterprises Inc
July 14, 2005

On South Main Street in Wyoming there are three buildings colored blue. The sign in front says, Bo/Gar Enterprises, Inc. One of the buildings has been there from the 1960's. It was known as Breese, Inc and produced materials under government contract for the space program. Breese moved to Peoria in the 1980's and became Trans Technologies. in 1989, after purchasing the old Breese building, Bo/Gar moved to Wyoming from East Peoria. Having been located near the Franklin Street Bridge in East Peoria for 5 years, the construction of the new Bob Michel Bridge forced Bo/Gar to move. In 2000, Andrew E and Marsha Dwyer purchased the company. Bo/Gar has produced precision machined production parts for Caterpilar Inc since its conception. The addition of an assembly line began shortly after the move to Wyoming. At that time the company had 20 employees.

It went about that business quietly. Most of us did not know much about the place. The second and third buildings were added and we took that as a sign of growth.

A visit to the plant revealed that for the past fourteen years, Bo/Gar has produced steering controls and brake assemblies for Caterpillar Track Type Tractorsand Electric “Commutative Poles” for the locomotive motors that General Electric Company produces.

Every day trucks come and go from the plant. Materials are delivered, parts from other production plants arrive and assembled units are hauled to Caterpillar world wide and parts are shipped to GE.

The plant is 21st century equipped. All of their machinery used to produce parts “computerized numerically controlled” and some parts are moved by a robot. They now have 68 employees in the plant and they work in two ten hour shifts. Everything is manufactured to QS9000 Management System standards. This means that parts and assemblies that leave the plant are ready for use and certified to need no further inspection by the customer.

The persons who work in the plant are from Stark and Henry Counties. Marsha Dwyer said that they have plans to build additional space and to seek further employees. Actually, Bo/Gar needs additional help now The work is non-union and the pay scale is in line with the skilled work done at the plant.

The company has an employee stock option plan, after one year of employment, a person is eligible to join the plan and become part owner of the business. The company is owned one-half by Andy and Marsha Dwyer and one-half by employees.

Here is another example of a company that moved from to a a large metropolitan area where the attitude toward the operation is friendly and the availability of people to work is good. Bo/Gar pays taxes to the county in the sum of $28,000(Last years figures). I have written about the way industry contributes to the community of Stark, here is a good example of that contribution.

More Sour Grapes and Saddle Sores





Created by KKris. Last Modification: Sunday 03 of August, 2008 13:54:38 EDT by KKris.