Hydro-Gear’s focus on staying ahead of the competition is being matched with a desire to nurture quality employees in its Princeton plant and other locations.
Mike Todd, vice president of operations for Hydro-Gear, spoke about the company’s history in Princeton and plans for its future during a joint community meeting at the Princeton Country Club Wednesday.
“Our future is innovation, innovation, and innovation,” he said.
The company, headquartered in Sullivan, Ill., broke ground on its Princeton plant in June 2005.
“Five months later, we were shipping product out of the facility,” Todd said.
Princeton, he added, met a few key criteria for company executives as they sought to expand their operation.
“Hydro-Gear was growing in Sullivan at a faster pace than what the labor supply could give us,” he said.
At the same time, the company wanted its new facility to remain close to its Illinois headquarters.
Princeton, about a 4-hour drive from Sullivan, also had the labor force the company was looking for.
“What attracted us to Princeton was the people, first and foremost,” said Todd.
Executives also appreciated the community’s positivity, and the combination of state and local incentives presented to the company.
The company manufactures hydrostatic drives for the lawn and garden equipment industry — essentially, automatic transmissions for lawnmowers and other products.
“We make products to make the wheels move,” said Todd.
The Princeton plant, located in the city-county industrial park on U.S. 62 West, has since risen to manufacture the majority of the company’s transaxles intended for use by residential consumers.
The company also manufactures longer-lasting transaxles for use in commercial applications, and its customer base is widespread.
“We sell products to every manufacturer that makes lawn and garden equipment,” Todd said.
The Princeton plant has also been the site of some new developments for the company.
Production on the company’s T2 transaxle began here on Jan. 1, 2007, adding about 60 new jobs to the plant.
A second assembly line for the product will be put in locally this year, Todd said.
One of the company’s three assembly lines for some of its zero-turn products was moved from Sullivan to Princeton in August, he added.
The Princeton facility currently employs about 250 workers, he said.
The entire company has about 850 employees, including a few in Europe and Asia.
The company, he added, wants to make its employees view their jobs as more than just jobs, and view their colleagues, in a sense, as family.
“This concept of a family-type environment is one that we have and one that we strive for,” he said.
Developing people who can embrace that concept and take pride in their jobs and the products they create is another company goal as Hydro-Gear eyes the future, he said.
The company, he added, wants to develop a closer relationship with the local school district to help prepare students for possible future positions in the company.
Such a relationship is already in place in Sullivan, Todd said. “The school district reached out to Hydro-Gear in Sullivan and said ‘We want to work together,’” he said.
The company helps sponsor a Junior Achievers program in Sullivan and would support a similar program here, he noted.
The company’s local executives have already extended the company’s support to a number of other community organizations, like the Community Disciples and the Princeton Art Guild.
