1/12/05
By Dave Alexander
Chronicle Business Editor

Muskegon Area First has tapped the marketing expertise of a
Holland-based site selection firm to generate a list of potential
companies which might be interested in locating operations in Muskegon
County.

Whittaker Associations is in the process of receiving a $30,000
consulting contract from Muskegon Area First — the local economic
development organization. In the next year, Whittaker — a
nationally recognized marketing consultant working with communities
and corporations — will identify the “clusters” of industrial firms that
make sense for Muskegon and begin feeding Muskegon
Area First names of specific companies.
With the generated leads, it will be the job of Muskegon Area First
to make the multiple contacts to those companies with hopes of
interesting them in considering Muskegon County for their next move
or expansion.
The goal is to get Muskegon’s name before the corporate decision
makers, Muskegon Area First President Jim Edmonson said. Local economic
developers will be making “cold calls” to the
companies selected by Whittaker.
“It’s a numbers game,” Edmonson said. “You make 1,000 calls and you
have a better chance at landing something than if you make 100 calls.”
The whole process starts with identifying the firms that Muskegon
County already has here. Prior analysis has shown that Muskegon’s
substantial industrial economy is led by companies clustered in
the aerospace, chemical products, automotive, plastics and metal
forming sectors.
Howmet Castings of Alcoa Inc. leads the industrial sector in Muskegon
County with its turbine parts manufacturing and research operations in
Whitehall with more than 2,500 employees. Other
aerospace companies include Johnson Technology, Cannon Muskegon Corp.
and Kaydon Corp.
Sun Chemical, Hayes-Lemmerz International (auto parts), ADAC Plastics
and the Port City Group (metals) are leaders in the other major
industrial clusters in Muskegon County. The latest estimate by
the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo shows
that 15,380 workers are in goods-producing jobs in Muskegon County — 23
percent of the total county work force.
Whittaker then will have discussions with economic developers,
municipal officials and business leaders on what clusters to target,
those businesses that would fit best into Muskegon’s future. Issues
such as the pool of trained workers or employment shortages in
certain trades may help shape that list, Edmonson said.
“We know what we don’t want on our waterfront ... like a steel mill,”
Edmonson said.
With the local consensus on targets balanced with the reality of what
makes sense for Muskegon, Whittaker then begins the national search for
prospects, according to Pete Julius, vice president for
business development at Whittaker. It’s a “match-maker” role of
sorts.
“There has to be a desirability from the local standpoint and
feasibility from the business standpoint,” Julius said of the companies
that become targets. “We act as a funnel to find the firms that pose
the best opportunity for the local community.”
Edmonson said part of the targeting process is selecting companies
that are on a steep growth curve, just placed a new chief executive or
have just merged or made a major acquisition. History has
shown these factors are present with most corporate expansions or
relocations, he said.
Geography also plays a key role.
Certain industries cluster to specific parts of the country, Julius
said. Whittaker has identified five strong bio-technology clusters in
the United States — all located on the East or West coasts.
Edmonson said that certain companies will not locate in the upper
Midwest, deciding to focus their expansion in the Sun Belt states of the
South and Southwest.
Whittaker signs economic development contracts for 12-month periods.
At the end of 2005, the consultants and Muskegon Area First will talk
about how the company attraction plan has gone and what
the next steps should be, if any.
Whittaker also has a program for communities wanting to retain jobs
in their business sector or encourage local companies to expand at home,
Julius said. Among the firm’s community clients are
agencies in Wichita, Kansas, and in Bay County in Michigan.
Whittaker, a firm created by Dean Whittaker in 1987, also works with
corporate clients to identify potential customers and with real estate
firms to find potential buyers. Whittaker is the former
managing director of the Illinois Office of Industrial Development.
Julius said that the Holland firm begins its relationship with
Muskegon Area First with no real impression of the Muskegon community
from a site selection standpoint. From an economic development
perspective, Julius said that Muskegon is defined by the West
Michigan region.
“Most businesses will lump Muskegon into the overall region,” he
said. “Most of the decisions made now by those working on a global level
are doing so from a regional approach, be it Muskegon,
Grand Rapids or Holland.”