Compco Industries sells local facility

By Don Shilling

The company has invested $7 million in its Columbiana plant in the past five years.

COLUMBIANA — Compco Industries has sold its Youngstown plant as it accelerates its relocation to Columbiana.

Its East Hylda Street plant was sold Monday to Greco Holdings for $416,000. The plant had been owned by a real estate company connected to Compco.

Greco, which operates a steel distribution company, will use most of the building, while Comp- co will maintain a small production area, said Doug Hagy, Compco’s chief financial officer.

The metal stamping company has been slowly shifting its production to a plant on West Railroad Street in Columbiana, which it bought in 1994. Its offices also are located in Columbiana.

In the past five years, the company has spent $7 million on expansions and equipment purchases at the Columbiana plant. About 10 new jobs have been created.

With the sale of the Youngstown plant, six production workers and a five-person machine shop have been moved to Columbiana. That plant has a total of 65 workers.

Hagy said eight workers are left in Youngstown, but those positions eventually will be moved as well.

Compco is owned by Clarence Smith, and his son, Greg, is president and chief executive.

Hagy said the company first moved to Columbiana because it didn’t have room to expand in Youngstown.

Now that the Columbiana plant has grown so large, executives don’t think it is cost-efficient to run two facilities, he said.

Officials expect the company to continue to grow as it markets new product lines.

The company was founded 53 years ago as a maker of tank heads — metal pieces that cover tank openings.

Lately, however, it’s been expanding into producing other stamped products, such as brackets, motor mounts and other metal parts.

It still produces tank heads. The company primarily ships to customers in the Southeast and near the Great Lakes.