North Toledo elevator company Wurtec ceremonially broke ground April 14 for a new expansion, which will more than double the size of its current facility. As reported by Toledo Free Press Staff Writer Tom Konecny, Wurtec’s primary work involves designing and building the tools, parts and products contractors use to install elevators; the firm also builds elevators for residential use.
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The company has added 10 jobs in the past year, and as we do with any business that invests in our region, we extend a warm thank you to them for not just maintaining their presence but also growing it.
Steve Wurth, company founder and president, said, “A lot of the opportunities we’re finding are international-based. It’s probably our biggest growth sector. We’re just going through a really busy time here. It’s exciting for us as a small company to be able to do things like this.”
The Wurtec news came the same day as keynote speaker Tom Murphy told attendees at the 12th annual State of the Region Conference that, “Globalization is changing the way we do business today. Toledo, you’re in a revolution here whether you know it or not.”
As reported in an online story by Toledo Free Press Senior Business Writer Duane Ramsey, Murphy, a former mayor of Pittsburgh, said, “You need to think of Toledo, not as it is today, but as it can be in the future. You have to understand what your strengths are and use them to compete.”
Murphy said Pittsburgh invested in its cultural community and reclaimed the waterfront. Those are both lessons we should well heed.
Bowling Green State University’s Center for Regional Development reported on the state of the region’s economy in 2014, saying that 6,600 new jobs have been created in the region since 2009 for 1.18 percent employment growth. However, that figure is still well below the national average growth of 4.66 percent.
It’s a complicated recipe but it is not a secret. We have the ingredients. We just need more kitchens like Wurtec feeding the region’s local — and global — future.
Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press. Contact him at tpounds@toledofreepress.com.
