Local business leaders work to bring new businesses to mid-Missouri
Bringing new businesses to the mid-Missouri area almost echoes a James Bond movie.
Many times prospective companies send out consultants but keep its identity a secret until the final stages of a project.
“Most of the companies we work with are larger, more established companies,” said Bernie Andrews, the executive vice president of Regional Economic Development Inc, or REDI. “Some of them are even publicly traded so we have to be confidential with them. There’s certain things you can’t disclose.”
Andrews spends much of his time marketing the area to potential businesses and companies, lobbying to bring industry to Columbia.
He doesn’t work alone, though. He’s joined by folks with the statewide Missouri partnership and Missouri CORE.
Joel McNutt, the director of CORE, said they won’t blindly offer a business they know very little about a place in the community with out fully vetting it first.
“A lot of the incentives both at local and state level have built in structures to incentive longevity or increasing incentives based on job creation, investment or time in the state or community,” he said. “A lot of these programs are geared toward that so you’re not giving away everything out of the gate and a year later they’re closing their doors and saying goodbye.”
The three organizations use their own funds to aggressively market within the mid-Missouri community. CORE works with five counties: Boone, Callaway, Cole, Audrain and Cooper.
“You strive and look for the most effective, cost efficient ways to do that and it all starts in the region,” said McNutt. “It all starts with prospect leads and everything flowing up in the region and knowing who you are, what you’re makeup is, and what would be a good fit and what you want to go after.”
McNutt said they have a website that has all the available sites listed and companies are often checking the website out before they contact REDI or Missouri CORE.
Mid-Missouri does pose some challenges that the groups have to overcome, including work force issues.
“One of the challenges we face is finding enough qualified people to meet the company’s needs,” he said.
A promising lead is under code name Project Cadre right now. While Andrews has a fairly good idea of what the company is, he’s not disclosing that information until it’s appropriate.
“That’s part of the confidentiality. They’re in business, they have competitors, they have employees,” he said. “It’s still early on in the process and they have to keep that confidential. We respect that.”
Project Cadre is a food manufacturing company that could bring about 100 new jobs to Columbia.
The Dana Axle project, which including a tax break for the company in exchange for more than 130 new jobs, was under code name Project Strong almost until the project was complete.
