Will Be Working

To Retain Local

Manufacturer, Jobs

By DOUGLAS WATSON

Managing Editor

The initial meeting was held Tuesday afternoon of a 10-member "community action team" that will lead this community's efforts to keep American Greetings operating here.

The Cleveland, Ohio-based manufacturer announced on July 1 it will be conducting "a feasibility study" to consider consolidation of its operations here with those in Kalamazoo, Mich. "and, if so, where operations should be located.

"The study is expected to be completed and a decision made in early fall 2008. A possible outcome of the study may be the closing of one of the two facilities."

Reacting to that challenge, the communitsy action team's 10 members met at the Greene County Partnership's headquarters in their initial session Tuesday afternoon.

The team's 10 members are:

* Greene County Mayor Alan Broyles

* Greeneville Mayor Laraine King;

* GCP Chairman Drucilla Miller;

* GCP President Randy Harrell;

* Michelle Scarborough, an economic development specialist with the state's Department of Economic and Community Development; and

* local business leaders Jerry Fortner, Bob Grubbs, Terry Leonard, Scott Niswonger and Stan Puckett.

Plants Described

American Greetings' main plant has about 700 employees from summer though late fall, but in the winter typically has seasonal layoffs that lower its personnel until late spring to about 300, the company has said.

The Kalamazoo plant has from 275 to 350 employees, depending on the season.

The main local American Greetings plant is located in Afton just outside of Greeneville, The company has a smaller, auxiliary plant along Bohannon Avenue in Greeneville.

The local plants primarily manufacture gift-wrap and greeting cards.

American Greetings, which has many divisions, generates annual revenues of $1.8 billion.

Meeting's Topics

Harrell opened Tuesday's 2 p.m. meeting by saying the future of the local American Greetings plant "is important to all of us. We want to do everything we can" to encourage the company to keep its operations here.

A written agenda Harrell provided at the meeting's outset indicated the community action team would compare what is being offered here with what is being offered in Kalamazoo, a city of 77,145 residents in southwestern Michigan.

He listed the criteria as:

* facilities/land, taxes;

* taxes -- local and state;

* incentives -- local and state;

* utilities;

* labor;

* unions;

* logistics;

* climate;

* median income, and

* housing.

Reporters Leave

At this point reporters with The Greeneville Sun and WGRV excused themselves as it became clear the team members were hesitant to speak frankly about specific plans or strategy while news reporters were present.

Team members realized that if their comments about the situation and the team's possible tactics were publicly reported, they would be read and heard not only here but also in Kalamazoo and in Cleveland, Ohio, at American Greetings' headquarters.

After the meeting, which focused on American Greetings' situation for about an hour, Harrell said in an interview that he and others with Greene County Partnership will be working to provide specific information comparing the plants here and in Kalamazoo.

Harrell will be meeting with Scott Crawford, American Greetings' local plant manager next week after Crawford returns from vacation. Then, he said, the community action team likely would meet again the following week.

Team 'Cautiously Optimistic'

Åsked to describe the team's mood in regard to the prospects of keeping American Greetings operating here, Harrell said, "There is real concern," but the team's members are "cautiously optimistic."

Asked what is likely to be the decisive factor for American Greetings' top executives, Harrell said he doesn't know, but in situations such such as this, "it usually comes down to profitability -- whichever plant can operate with the most efficiency and profitability."

Harrell said that one advantage the local community will have this time that it lacked in a previous competition with Franklin, Tenn., is that the state government this time will not be neutral, as it was in the competition between the two Tennessee cities.

He reported that Scarborough, the state's Department of Economic and Community Development's representative, assured the community action team that Matthew Kisber, her department's commissioner, has said he will mobilize his department to help this community make its best case to American Greetings decision-makers.

Previous Challenge

In April 2004, American Greetings announced it was considering closing either its Plus Mark plant in Franklin, Tenn., or its plants here.

This community then weathered a half-year of anxious suspense as a major effort was mounted locally to persuade the corporation to expand the Greeneville operation rather than close it.

On Nov. 9, 2004, American Greetings announced that it would close its Franklin plant and move that facility's operations and some of its personnel to Greeneville.

Kurt Schoen, then Plus Mark's president, said, "When the cost and benefits were examined, we determined that a Tennessee manufacturing presence was appropriate and that the Greeneville facility would be a more efficient location."

Since then, the parent company has invested more than $5 million in its Greeneville plants and substantially reorganized the layout of equipment within them.