Local company to add jobs, manufacture trimmers
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Outdoor Power Equipment, currently based out of the CORE plant off Highway 93, where Jore was located, may begin manufacturing small lawn and garden equipment by the end of 2011. OPE’s first product will be a trimmer, and the company will provide a jolt to the local economy with 25 to 30 new jobs.
OPE would like to stay on the south campus of CORE, but the company needs space to manufacture and assemble the trimmers. One of the only suitable available spaces is the Meridian building on Kerr Dam Road southwest of Polson.
After presenting their plans to both the Ronan City Council and the Polson City Commission, OPE received the okay to lease the Meridian building. OPE assured the Ronan Council the business is not moving to Polson according to Billie Lee, Executive Director Lake County Community Development.
CEO Dan Gabig said manufacturing realistically might start in the Meridian building in December. Shipments of trimmers will begin in early February, Gabig said, and initially the plant will employ 25 to 30 people with plans to double the number of employees as demand increases and other products, such as blowers and lawn mowers, are added.
Lake County Development is assisting in the startup of OPE through the its small business and technical assistance program according to Lee. The City of Ronan, along with Lake County, sponsored a community development block grant for OPE also.
The two sources combined to sink half a million dollars into OPE’s first commercial product.
The trimmers use patented neodymium magnet-powered technology developed by Matt Jore and his brain trust at the CORE offices off Highway 93.
“We got rid of gas,” Matt Jore said at a walk-through at the plant near Ronan.
All CORE machines are half the cost and half the weight, Jore said, plus they don’t generate heat and they are at least 90 percent efficient.
OPE will be targeting sophisticated homeowners and the commercial market with their trimmers, Gabig explained. OPE trimmers will work for commercial landscapers and lawn services that need quieter machines for city work. The motor in a OPE machine will run 10,000 hours, compared to a commercially rated trimmer that currently has a life of 300 hours.
OPE is currently preparing for the trimmer’s debut at the GIE Expo on Oct. 27 in Louisville, Ky.
