In This Issue
- Location, Work Force Keys to Success Brownwood retains, grows manufacturing base
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From Comptroller
Susan Combs - TEXpansion/
Texas Transparency - Mechatronics Brings Efficiencies to Texas Industry
Read how comptroller grants are training Texans - Partnering
for Impact:
Business, industrial parks coming up roses in Tyler - Enterprise Programs Seal the Deals
Combining state, local incentives to attract manufacturing investment - Sunshine Stimulus Powers Training
SECO renewable energy grants spark solar growth 
Diverse Industries Drive State
Manufacturing success comes from ingenuity, hard work
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We Can
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Mediation services for agricultural producers
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Location, Work Force Keys to Success
Brownwood retains, grows manufacturing base despite downturn
Build New
Business
Tools That Made
A Difference
Plan for the future, follow through with the plan
Smaller manufacturing companies can build business and gain customers by simply doing what they say they will do. Barr Fabrication LLC is one of those companies, says James Campbell, executive director of Brownwood’s Economic Development Corporation. Barr manufactures components for wind turbines and moved to the Brownwood area with eight employees. The company now has more than 100 employees.
Local officials and lenders helped Barr obtain funding from the Texas Capital Fund, which awarded Barr a $700,000 grant on a 20-year, zero- interest loan. The collaborative effort, along with Barr’s spending more than $775,000 in equipment purchases, helped the company build a 27,000 square-foot facility, bringing its total to about 40,000 square feet.
“They have supported us in building a strong financial foundation for growing our business and expanding our production capacity,” says Sandra Barr, Barr’s president. “We could not be more grateful for the faith they have shown in our management team and our vision for our company.”
Who’s doing business in Brownwood? Find out from Brownwood Economic Development Corporation’s online directory.
Away from the bright glow of metro lights, Brownwood’s manufacturers keep rolling out products for sale around the world. Despite a weakened economy, there’s no slowing down in this northern Hill Country community of 20,000 situated about 130 miles southwest of Fort Worth.
“Our manufacturers here have done very well during this economic downturn,” says James Campbell, executive director of the Brownwood Economic Development Corporation (EDC).
About 45 manufacturing companies call Brownwood and Brown County home, and they employ more than 3,000 people. The county’s rural setting and employee-rich environment are vital to the area’s manufacturing success.
“Being rural, we don’t have a lot of competition with neighbors because we don’t really have any,” Campbell says. “And availability of a qualified work force has been a big plus, and it’s not just Brownwood. We have folks who commute 40 to 50 miles every day to work.”
“You see products all over that read ‘Made in China,’ but we make ours here (in Brownwood) and then export them around the world, including to China.”
— Dean Mill, 3M Plant Manager
Manufacturing Roots
Kohler (1,400 employees), 3M (600 employees) and Superior Essex (500 employees) are some of the area’s manufacturing heavyweights. 3M’s Brownwood operation opened in 1965, and is now one of the international company’s largest facilities. The plant occupies more than 800,000 square feet and employs between 500 and 600, depending on time of year. Reflective materials for license plates, signs, apparel and other purposes are the calling card of the Brownwood plant, which ships its products to customers around the world.
“You see products all over that read ‘Made in China,’ but we make ours here (in Brownwood) and then export them around the world, including to China,” says Plant Manager Dean Mill. “We feel we’re one of the success stories for manufacturing in a small community. We’ve had a very good partnership.”
City leaders and the area’s higher education providers embrace filling local industry work force needs. Howard Payne University, Ranger College and Texas State Technical College all have campuses in Brownwood. Ranger’s campus offers general education courses in addition to a licensed vocational nursing program and the science and biology courses that go with it to, so to speak, manufacture qualified nurses. The region’s health industry is buoyed by the Brownwood Regional Medical Center, Texas’ largest rural hospital with about 650 employees. TR
3M provides more than 500 jobs in the Brownwood area.
Brownwood’s 3M plant manuafactures reflective material for dozens of products, including license plates, tennis shoes, jogging suits and more.