All but wrecked by the Memorial Day tornadoes five years ago, the mining equipment and train components manufacturer raised a $135 million production facility on Kuntz Road without losing a customer and without laying off workers.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
“We’ve really been fortunate to improve this building to the extent we have,” Gale Kooken, the company’s founder and former chief executive, told trustees of the Dayton-Montgomery County Port Authority in 2022.
Kooken vowed in the hours after the 2019 tornadoes to keep all of his then-approximately 300 employees on the company payroll as the business temporarily moved manufacturing operations to a former Delphi plant on Northwoods Boulevard in Vandalia.
It took some 600 semi trucks and 43 days to move all of the parts and equipment needed to relocate to Vandalia. The work returned to Dayton in October 2021.
By 2022, the manufacturer had more than 330 employees, including about 245 in Dayton. While some employees chose to move on after the tornadoes, no one was laid off, the company said.
Dayton-Phoenix officials did not immediately respond to questions about their plans.
Trotwood officials did not respond to questions about the Westrafo America project. The company works in the renewable energy and electric transformer industry, among other ventures.
Trotwood has had notable recent industrial park development, and city council recently discussed an unnamed company that could bring 200 jobs at the Gated Properties Industrial Park.
The Ohio Tax Credit Authority is a board whose five members review applications for tax credit assistance. The board meets Monday in Columbus.
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