SHALERSVILLE − A clean, quiet manufacturing plant making copper plumbing products opened its sprawling new Shalersville facility on Sept. 4.
Viega celebrated the opening of its 244,000-square-foot, $178 million factory in Shalerville’s Turnpike Commerce Center. The factory sits next door to a 1-million-square-foot building that recently has leased 400,000 square feet of warehouse space to Piping Rock, a manufacturer that has plants in Aurora and Streetsboro, said Brad Ehrhart, president of Portage Development Board.
Viega plans to hire 68 full-time employees, generating $3.6 million in new annual payroll, according to the Ohio Tax Credit Authority.
The Shalersville plant is the company’s second manufacturing facility in the United States. The first, located in McPherson, Kansas, is a sprawling factory that now employs 600 people around the clock, said Markus Brettschneider, CEO of Viega Group.
“That’s the kind of success we want to replicate here,” Brettschneider said.
What does Viega do?
The Viega Group was founded in 1899 by Franz-Anselm Viegener, who got his start by creating an innovative brass beer tap, according to the company’s website. The firm expanded into the manufacture of home plumbing products and eventually became a global supplier of compression press fittings for metal pipes and valves.
Visitors taking a tour Sept. 4 were invited to make their own bottle opener as a nod to the company’s beginnings.
Brettschneider said the company decided in 2022 to expand its North American manufacturing, and eventually settled on the Shalersville site.
“Two and a half years later, we can definitely tell that we made the right choice,” he said.
Shalersville Township Trustee Frank Ruehr said the company looked at a site in Streetsboro, but it didn’t meet its needs. Patrick O’Malia, the city’s economic development director, encouraged the company to consider the 475-acre industrial park in Shalersville, which was just getting started.
“It turned out that Shalersville was exactly what Viega was looking for,” Ruehr said. “And it turned out that Viega was exactly what Shalersville needed.”
The factory joined a Joint Economic Development District between Shalersville and Streetsboro, and received a number of tax incentives to lure the company to Northeast Ohio.
Matt Dolan, chief executive officer of Team NEO, worked to ensure that the former farm field had the road and utilities needed to support the factory, which was constructed within 18 months.
“In Ohio, we realize economic development is driven by the business sector,” he said. “We work at the speed of business.”
Marki Houston, CEO of Viega North America, said the firm has invested in the area, not only through its $178 million building but with the 68 employees who are to be hired over the first two years.
“That’s 68 families, 68 reasons this community means something to us,” she said. “It will grow over time.”
Quiet, clean operation
Eric Wicker, senior director of construction and emerging technology at Viega North America, led tour participants to an overhead catwalk that gives plant visitors a bird’s eye view of the manufacturing process.
Wicker said products start out as a large spool of copper tubing. Various machines unwind and bend the copper into the various products the company makes. Machines cut the copper into elbows; shape and refine each part; wax and polish the product; and then add final touches such as logos and seal elements. The items are then bagged and packaged.
He pointed out that all machines are designed so workers don’t need ear plugs, which are required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration when operation noise reaches too high a decibel level.
“It’s clean,” he said. “It’s quiet. That’s a selling point to customers.”
The plant in McPherson, Kansas, doesn’t have a catwalk, but one was included in Shalersville because customers wanted to view the manufacturing process. It can be difficult and sometimes unsafe to take tour groups through a factory while machines are running, Wicker said. Right now, 1,500 people are scheduled to tour the factory for training.
Sculptor has a local tie
Large sculptures in the lobby of the factory greet visitors as they enter the plant.
Artist Michael Murphy said he was excited by the project because he has a connection to Portage County.
He grew up in Rootstown, where his parents, Troy and Linda Murphy, still live. Michael Murphy said his father was a plumber who taught him about pipe fittings while he was growing up.
One sculpture, made of copper pipes, is shaped like the state of Ohio. Another is shaped like the United States. They also spell out the name of the company and have the names of the plant’s initial workers etched into the pipes.
Reporter Diane Smith can be reached at dsmith@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Viega unveils its clean, quiet factory in Shalersville
Reporting by Diane Smith, Ravenna Record-Courier / Record-Courier
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