Conforce won't reopen factory in Peru, officials say
Carson Gerber Kokomo Tribune
PERU — A company that anticipated creating 175 jobs by the end of the year is leaving Peru after struggling for three years to get up and running and taking at least $200,000 of taxpayer money with it, according to Miami County officials.
Conforce USA, located near the intersection of U.S. 31 and U.S. 24, began operation in May 2011 and initially hired around 25 production workers. A year later, the company laid off all the employees, except management positions, after it decided to retool its production lines.
In August 2012, Conforce reopened one of its production lines and re-hired eight people, but again laid off all employees to retool its equipment a second time.
The company never rehired employees after that, and county officials say it appears the company is now permanently closing up shop.
Officials with Peru and the county had high hopes when the company first indicated it would invest more than $13 million to purchase and equip the 155,000-square-foot manufacturing facility that previously housed the Trelleborg automotive plant.
Conforce was to begin manufacturing a new product called EKO-FLOR, a composite flooring system that replaces traditional hardwood floors in semitrailers and other shipping containers.
“Everything looked like it was very promising,” said Jim Tidd, executive director of the Miami County Economic Development Authority. “They had a good product that there was a need for, and there was cash to get up and running. Everybody was hopeful, but our hopes got less and less as we saw what was happening … It looks like right now Conforce will never utilize that building,”
The city enticed the company to the area with a number of tax abatements and a $500,000 forgivable loan. Each year Conforce met certain hiring and investment requirements, the city would forgive $100,000 of the loan and reapprove the tax abatements.
But Conforce failed to meet those requirements within the first year. And now that the company is pulling out its investment, city officials say they want to get some of the loan money back.
Peru City Attorney Bill Berkshire said he’s drawing up an agreement with a Conforce attorney that would repay $50,000 of the loan immediately, and potentially another $250,000 in the future.
He said the city has put a lien on the company’s equipment inside the facility. If Conforce sells the equipment or begins to manufacture EKO-FLOR at another location, the city could then get back the $250,000.
“That’s about as good as we can expect to get,” Berkshire said. “ … But Conforce isn’t saying they will sell the equipment. If we end up getting $300,000, I’d be pretty stoked.”
With Conforce closing up, Tidd said the two biggest concerns are getting some of the loan money back and finding a new company to buy the facility.
“It’s a good building and it’s in a great location,” he said. “Now it’s a question of how we turn this into an opportunity to turn that building into another place for jobs.”
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