CRESTVIEW — The front sign may say Bay State Cable Ties, but the manufacturer's local management is happy to be in the Sunshine State, expanding its Crestview plant and workforce.
Gov. Rick Scott visited the plant Thursday afternoon to help the company celebrate its growth and the success of state and local programs that kept the company at the Okaloosa Industrial Air Park.
Twelve years ago, Bay State distributed Chinese-made cable ties — also called zip ties — in Massachusetts, Scott said. But Enterprise Florida and the Okaloosa County Economic Development Council lured the company to Crestview.
Earlier this year, the two entities crafted business development incentives that allowed Bay State to expand and facilitated its new addition's construction. “It went up in six months: from the day we decided to do it until the day it was finished,” Sires said. “Florida has a lot less red tape. I have a manufacturing facility in Connecticut. There, it (approval of plans) takes months. Here, it’s days.”
The expansion will add 40 employees to Bay State’s 100-person workforce. Sires said he expects production to reach close to 2 billion cable ties this year, up a half-billion from last year. “This operation proves that we can compete globally with China and Mexico,” Okaloosa County Commission Chairman Nathan Boyles said. “Mr. Sires is disproving the myth that manufacturing is dead in America. If we can outperform China in making zip ties, we can outperform them in making anything.”
“The Crestview area itself in the last 12 months has added 1,200 jobs and the unemployment rate here is clear down to 4.5 percent,” Scott said to applause. The state unemployment rate is 5.3 percent, he said.
“Anytime you can bring more jobs to the area, it’s good news for our citizens,” Crestview City Council President Shannon Hayes said.
Crestview resident Pat Norris, who has been with Bay State since it opened here, has seen the progress firsthand. “We didn’t have but five machines on the floor,” she said, noting that now 13 machines produce cable ties all day and night. “We’ve come a long way and we’re going a long way, too.”
“Made in America,” Sires said. “Just remember that. Not ‘made in China.’”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Florida governor lauds Crestview company's expansion, job creation (VIDEO)