Dearing expansion, new jobs

By DENISE DICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

A dynamic sibling PARTNERSHIP

and a location close to newly discovered

natural gas combine to allow a Simon Road business in Boardman to thrive while many others struggle.

“We’re adding about a 56,000-square-foot large assembly building,” said Richard Dearing Jr., president of Dearing Compressor & Pump Co. The work should be done by June 2010.

The existing facility spans about 35,000 square feet. He estimated the investment at about $3 million. Dearing Compressor last expanded in 2006 when it added 10,000 square feet.

Company officials hope to add about 20 skilled trades employees. About 90 people are employed there now.

Dearing and his sister, Becky Dearing Wall, the company’s executive vice president, are partners in the business. Their siblings, Albin Dearing V and Debbie Bjelac, are minority shareholders.

Albin Dearing is the company’s sales and information-technology manager. Wall’s husband, Robin Wall, is vice president of sales and her son, Ryan Wilson is warehouse manager.

The company designs, engineers and sells industrial pumps and compressors.

It’s a partnership that works, Wall said.

She handles the company’s human resources function and her brother, a petroleum engineer, oversees the technical aspects of the business.

“It allows us to each do what we do best,” Wall said. “It’s the dynamic that Rick and I established and it works well for us.”

Dearing Compressor does a lot of business in the Appalachian region, including parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, where the Marcellus Shale formation is found. The formation contains natural gas reserves and Dearing Compressor serves companies drilling there.

The location of the reserves, identified within the last several years, puts the company in a good position.

“Most of our competition is in the Southwest,” Richard Dearing Jr. said.

The siblings’ grandfather, Albin Dearing, started the company in 1945 on Andrews Avenue, Youngstown. It stayed there until 1986 when it moved to Simon Road.

Richard Dearing Sr., Albin’s son and the siblings’ father, ran the company until his death in 1996.

Richard Jr. and Wall joined the company in the 1980s when the oil and gas industry was in a slump.

“Becky and I started under our father and learned during the hard times,” Richard Jr. said. “This is the reward today.”

Dearing Compressor has two sectors to its business: the production portion which designs, engineers and assembles equipment for the oil and gas industry and the distribution portion, selling compressors made by Gardner Denver Corp. Production is on Simon. Distribution is based in Twinsburg.

Their grandfather started the business as a distributor and Dearing Compressor remains the second oldest surviving Gardner Denver distributor, serving Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. Most smaller companies have been gobbled up by larger businesses, Wall said.

The compressors built by the company range from smaller units that can fit in a car trunk to 3,700-horsepower versions that weigh more than 130,000 pounds.

The expansion will allow the company to build more units in the larger space.

About a month ago, township officials approved a zone change from commercial to industrial on the property for the expansion, said Benjamin Breniman, township zoning inspector.

Site work is under way.

Hodge Construction of New Waterford is the general contractor and RT Vernal of North Lima is doing the sitework and excavation.

denise_dick@vindy.com