Noblesville foundry to invest $51M, hire nearly 250

Odell Brumley's family, like many in the area south of Noblesville's historic downtown, has worked at the Noblesville castings foundry for generations.

The plant for decades was one of Noblesville's major employers and was interwoven into the community, especially on the old southside, a mixture of industry and modest homes along a rail corridor.

But like many foundries throughout the Midwest, the future has looked bleak for years. Slowed sales. Bank foreclosure. Bankruptcy. Ownership changes. Layoffs. Shuttered production lines. Bounced paychecks. Temporary shutdowns.

By the time the last recession ended in 2008, Brumley was one of 17 workers at the plant, trying to hang on as long as they could before it, like so many other foundries, closed.

But then something unexpected happened.

Anticipating a growing need for U.S.-made ductile iron castings, Ohio-based ID Castings bought the foundry in October 2013 and launched plans four months later to invest $51 million over five years to rebuild the plant and increase production.

Now, officials tell The Indianapolis Star they are in the midst of hiring 250 workers through 2018. An earlier version of this story reported 400 new hires, but plant officials called back to revise the number based on new technologies.

The 68-year-old Brumley started in 1967 as a laborer and lives just a few blocks away. He's now a supervisor, and he and his team will be moving into one of many new buildings planned for the 15-acre campus.

"It's amazing to me," Brumley said. "I didn't think it would ever be up and running again like it is now."

An opportunity in Noblesville

ID Castings envisions opportunity, but the future for foundries has looked grim since the 1980s, when a struggling economy and competition from foreign companies contributed to the start of a long decline in manufacturing.

According to the American Foundry Society, there are 1,978 metal casting facilities in the United States, down from 3,200 in 1991, and from 6,150 in 1955.

Indiana, which ranks seventh in the U.S. in the number of foundries, has been hard hit. Most recently, Navistar announced it would close its foundry on the Far Eastside this year, eliminating the last 180 local lobs.

But as the economy continues to recover from the 2007-08 recession and the construction industry picks up, U.S. casting sales are forecast to grow 6 percent, according to the American Foundry Society, topping $37 billion in 2016.

Imports, though, are down 24 percent from 2008.

The American Foundry Society attributed the turnaround to higher-quality U.S.-made products, increasingly lower domestic labor costs, high domestic productivity, high overseas transportation costs and low energy costs.

ID Castings Noblesville Plant Engineer John Kelley nearly echoed those reasons while explaining the company's decision to revive the Noblesville foundry.

The company is making a big investment here. In addition to buying the foundry from Indiana Ductile Co., for $103,000, ID Castings bought the adjacent closed Warner Bodies facility and land from City Council President Mark Boice's family for $2.6 million.

Kelley said ID Castings saw an opportunity to manufacture hundreds of ductile iron castings in the growing market, including clamp rings, pipe fittings and assorted bolt hardware in a variety of industries. Products range from 1 pound to 500 pounds.

Kelley said Noblesville's foundry was an ideal location, allowing the company to manufacture products while it increases production over time. He said it's also easier to retrofit a foundry than to build a new one, which would require environmental permitting, local governmental approvals, electrical infrastructure, properly zoned land and customized equipment.

ID Castings, in the second year of a five-year plan, has spent about $15 million on demolition and new equipment and has added a second production line to the existing one.

The company will add two other production lines. By 2018, it will be making ductile iron castings from two foundry facilities on site and preparing them for customers at one finishing facility.

The Warner Bodies facility to the south eventually will be a second finishing facility.

Kelley said production has more than doubled. And he didn't sound concerned about sales, at least yet.

"We're not worried about our quarter-to-quarter earnings so much," Kelley said. "We're sticking to our five-year plan and our vision to have a safe, productive and environmentally friendly foundry."

The company already has increased the workforce to 41 workers and plans to hire an additional 209 by 2018. The average salary is about $35,000.

The business is dangerous, though, and sometimes tragic. In 2014, Anthony Block was trapped between the railing of an aerial platform and a steel catwalk and was killed. His death was ruled an accident.

Noblesville approves incentives

Noblesville had nearly given up on the factory before ID Castings bought it.

The foundry seemingly was closed as often as not. Bored teenagers had broken most of the windows with rocks in the past decade.

Mayor John Ditslear, in fact, envisioned the foundry as a future transit station for the nearby Nickel Plate rail line.

Ditslear, though, said the ownership group appears to want to make first-class improvements to the foundry.

In February 2014, the City Council unanimously approved a three-year tax abatement valued at nearly $1.3 million for ID Castings.

The city also used a $71,000 federal grant to address environmental concerns at the facility.

"I knew there was a lot of potential there," Ditslear said. "They're making good strides on cleaning up and tearing down buildings."

Looking forward, preserving the past

Kelley said ID Castings is trying to preserve the historical nature of the foundry as much as possible.

Founded as Noblesville Foundry and Machine Co., in 1887, blocks away at Division and Seventh streets, the plant moved to its current location at 1600 S. Eighth St. in 1890.

The Noblesville foundry's name and ownership changed many times over the years, but during its first decades, it was among the country's leaders in producing cast iron bathtubs. The company and six others actually faced an antitrust lawsuit in 1912 that accused it of participating in a monopoly.

Over time, the foundry diversified its approach to produce cast iron and ductile iron products for a variety of industries.

Areas of the factory date back 100 years or longer.

ID Castings has opted to save a 60-year-old brick wall facing Eighth Street from demolition, intending to use it as the front entrance for the rebuilt facility. Other brickwork will be saved, as practical, throughout the foundry.

Brumley, the longtime employee, remembers when the factory used to employ hundreds of workers. He's surprised it will again.

He was hired on the spot in 1967 for $1.31 an hour. His father-in-law worked there at the time. His grandson works there now.

Times have been tough. In 1999, as the plant struggled through bankruptcy, he missed three months of work after being cut by a malfunctioning saw. That December, workers were sent home three days before Christmas as the plant temporarily shut down, and their last paychecks bounced.

Brumley said ID Castings is managing the facility correctly.

"It's amazing how much work they have done in the last year or two," he said. "I love working here. If I didn't, I wouldn't be here."

Kelley said ID Castings was impressed that Brumley and a handful of workers had maintained the foundry through tough times. Kelley worked there from 2000 to 2008 before taking a job in Westfield.

Kelley is looking forward to seeing what the foundry can do in the future.

"If these guys could do so much with so little for so long, imagine what they could do with resources," he said.

Source: Noblesville Daily Ledger archives at the Noblesville Library.

Call Star reporter Chris Sikich at (317) 444-6036. Follow him on Twitter: @ ChrisSikich and at Facebook/chris.sikich.