By Zach Spicer
A Seymour company that manufactures cold heading steel wire is the latest to announce an investment.
During the Oct. 12 Seymour Common Council meeting, O&K American Corp. received approval for its request of a 10-year tax abatement on a nearly $9 million investment.
A tax abatement occurs over a 10-year period in which companies pay 10% more on taxes each consecutive year. Companies do not pay any property taxes on the improvements in the first year of a tax abatement.
The investment will allow O&K to maintain its current workforce of 74 and hire five new employees, said Jim Plump, executive director of Jackson County Industrial Development Corp., who spoke on behalf of the company.
The company’s current payroll is $5.3 million, and the new hires will generate $250,000 in additional salaries.
The investment includes $8,361,000 in personal property and $637,000 in real property at the facility at 1625 Bateman Drive in the Eastside Industrial Park.
The qualified personal property includes manufacturing equipment, while the real property is IT and logistics equipment.
“It’s new machinery to process wire rods, and we’re localizing,” said Darrell Clodfelder, general manager of operations for O&K. “Instead of having the wire shipped from Japan made at our Japan plant, we’re doing it here in Seymour from scratch. It’s a little bit more technology.”
The project is scheduled to begin this month and be completed by the end of 2027.
A handout prepared by the company that was distributed to the council states O&K has invested nearly $54 million in equipment and real estate improvements since selecting Seymour for its expansion in 2010.
According to oandk-co.com, the plant was built to be able to service the growing southern U.S. cold heading steel wire market. That material is used to manufacture screws, nuts, bolts and other parts.
Cold heading, which is possible at room temperature, is a manufacturing process with a number of benefits, including less material loss and high accuracy. Specializing in cold heading wire, O&K has supported the development of automobiles and a number of other fields.
The Japanese company traces its roots to 1925. The first U.S. facility opened in 1980 in Chicago, Illinois, and the Seymour site is the second one.
O&K has three plants in Japan — Osaka, Nagoya and Gunma. The company also has joint ventures in Mexico and Thailand, the latter being the base for the largest automotive industry in the region. Plus, the company transports full container loads directly from Japan to Europe, China and other areas of the world.
