Despite the closure of GAF Leatherback Corp.’s Hollister
facility and the resulting loss of 40-plus jobs, economic experts
said manufacturing remains strong in San Benito County.
Hollister – Despite the closure of GAF Leatherback Corp.’s Hollister facility and the resulting loss of 40-plus jobs, economic experts said manufacturing remains strong in San Benito County.
“There have been no real dramatic changes,” said Al Martinez, executive director of the nonprofit Economic Development Corp. “It just kind of plops along.”
According to data from the state Employment Development Department, San Benito County manufacturing jobs increased slowly between 1990 and 2005. And that local trend of growth from 1,900 to 2,500 jobs bucks the statewide trend of job loss, from 1.97 million in 1990 to 1.51 million in 2005.
The state manufacturing numbers include agricultural packaging companies like San Benito Foods – with a cannery in downtown Hollister – and Natural Selection Foods, Martinez said.
He acknowledged that the local manufacturing sector has seen some setbacks, including the departure of Leatherback and several other companies. But the overall pattern has been of small- to medium-sized employers coming to the county, flourishing and “growing, growing, growing,” Martinez said.
He pointed to Marich Confectionery, a candy company, as one business hearing the sweet sounds of success. Since coming to Hollister in 1998, Marich has added jobs and floor space.
Co-owner Troy van Dam said when Marich opened its doors in Hollister, it had “just over 50” full- and part-time employees. Now, Marich employment numbers are “pushing 95,” he said, and that figure increases to around 175 during the peak season. The majority of those workers are local, he said.
Hollister has been a business-friendly place, van Dam said. When Marich expanded its facilities by 20,000 feet in 2006, city staff made the process as smooth as possible. And it was Hollister’s financial incentives, including less expensive land prices and impact fees, which tempted van Dam to move from Watsonville in 1998.
“Financially, it made a lot more sense to move the facility,” he said.
But does anyone really care about manufacturing? If there are plenty of jobs, does it matter if they’re retail, service or manufacturing?
Technically, it doesn’t, said Jeff Pyle, the city’s economic development director. But manufacturing jobs tend to pay well, he noted.
“We want to get medium- to high-wage jobs,” Pyle said. “Around here, manufacturing at least falls into the medium.”
Pyle said he wants to find another employer to replace the jobs lost by Leatherback’s closure, and those jobs could be in any sector – be it traditional manufacturing or in Silicon Valley’s burgeoning biotech industry. Pyle said he’ll try to direct that growth to the industrial park near the airport, rather than the Leatherback land. With its close proximity to residential neighborhoods and the city’s commercial downtown, Pyle said the Leatherback property is no longer the best site for manufacturing or industrial plants.
Wherever new companies settle in Hollister, Martinez and Pyle said local manufacturing growth will continue.
“The big issue is, ‘Do you have a site and do you have workers available when I’m making my move?'” Pyle said. “Hollister has that, and if we continue to have that, we’re going to continue to attract employers.”
