Company sets up operation in Youngstown

By Karl Henkel | August 2, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

When Michael Montgomery first saw the old Superior Chemical Products Co. building at 1062 Ohio Works Drive, it was in shambles.

It had been ransacked, stripped of its interior, and the power line had been cut from the utility pole.

But after many months of labor and nearly $2 million in investments, the facility is now a metal-fabricating operation that is looking to hire at least 40 qualified Mahoning Valley workers — as soon as possible.

“We have projects, and we actually start next Monday,” said Montgomery, regional manager at Michigan-based DE-Cal, Inc., which opened its Youngstown branch Monday. “There are immediate openings.”

The company services the automotive, health care, commercial, wastewater treatment and steel industries.

The 40 full-time jobs will produce an annual payroll of $2.5 million but could expand to as many as 100 positions with an annual payroll of $6.2 million.

“Our economic development momentum continues,” said Walt Good, vice president of economic development, business retention and expansion at the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber. “Forty well-paying jobs are coming to the city of Youngstown.”

The 20,000-square-foot facility was purchased June 17 for about $500,000 through Kutlick Realty, LLC.

DE-Cal had considered other locations, including the south and in Pittsburgh, but Montgomery eventually decided on Youngstown because of its competitively priced workforce and proximity to its existing work agreements, which includes V&M Star, RG Steel in Warren and General Motors Co.

Aside from its Warren, Mich.-based headquarters, DE-Cal, which presently employs about 300, has operations in Pittsburgh and Detroit and serves Northern Ohio, Western Pennsylvania and Southeastern Michigan. The privately owned company was founded in 1992.