It seems like you’ve passed by it “only” a thousand times. Every day you drive past that one business that caught your eye, perhaps by its signage or an outdoor display. Just about every time since, you wonder to yourself what exactly do they do.
When driving on east U.S. 33 toward the outerbelt in northwest Franklin County, there’s no missing the large logo on the side of the building, nor the fire truck sitting idle by a pond where, from time to time, you can see water being shot by a fire hose during equipment tests. There’s no mistaking what Sutphen Corporation does. Still, you can’t help but to be curious about how they do it and how long they’ve been at it.
We've had the fortunate opportunity to work with Sutphen on a number of projects over the past year and got to learn about the company and the fire safety equipment manufacturing industry.
Based in Dublin, Sutphen has been manufacturing custom fire apparatus (i.e. fire trucks) for more than 120 years. With more than 100 employees, Sutphen products are sold to communities throughout Ohio and the nation as well as to companies all over the world.
But possibly more interesting is the size and the economic impact that the fire safety equipment industry has on Ohio. There are some 18 companies around the state that manufacture fire safety equipment or supply parts and protective apparel. Collectively, those companies employ more than 9,000 Ohioans, which is the sixth highest in the industry nationwide.
These companies and their employees call places like Orrville, Wilmington, New Knoxville, Wooster and Coldwater home. They pride themselves on the standards for engineering excellence, technology, innovation, and durability that they have established and are known all over the world for maintaining.
It’s nice to stumble upon a good news story about a company doing business in Ohio and doing well. Perhaps we need to do more celebrating the enterprises that are growing in Ohio – it might even fuel some interest. Besides, I was once told that you can’t attract any new business unless you’re taking care of the ones you have.
