JCIDC is excited to have five local companies — Cummins Seymour Engine Plant, AISIN USA Mfg. Inc., Guardian Bikes, Pet Supplies Plus and Valeo — participating in the 2025 Jackson County MFG Day on Oct. 10.
Nearly 200 students from Brownstown Central, Crothersville, Medora and Seymour high schools will gather at Cummins Seymour Engine Plant in the morning for workshops led by employees of the participating companies. Then in the afternoon, the students will break into groups and visit one of the companies for lunch, a tour and activities.
This event is part of the initiative of the Manufacturing Institute, the workforce development and education affiliate of the National Association of Manufacturers. Celebrated annually on the first Friday in October with events continuing throughout the month and beyond, MFG Day — Manufacturing Day — is a national grassroots movement that demonstrates the reality and future of modern manufacturing careers. Thousands of companies and educational institutions nationwide are invited to open their doors to students, parents, educators and community leaders.
MFG Day empowers manufacturers to come together and address their collective challenges and build excitement about manufacturing careers to help their communities and future generations thrive.
Investments totaling more than $39 million will bring nearly 50 jobs to two Crothersville industries.
During a meeting Sept. 2, the Crothersville Town Council approved 10-year tax abatement requests from AISIN Drivetrain Inc. and AISIN Chemical Indiana LLC.
Jim Plump, executive director of JCIDC, introduced both requests with company representatives in attendance.
ADI’s investment of $35,890,000 is for new production equipment. Plump said the personal property investment is scheduled to begin later this month and continue through the end of 2026.
This will result in the creation of 45 new positions paying just more than $2.8 million in annual salaries and retention of the current workforce of 518 with a payroll of more than $35 million, Plump said.
“Very likely, this is only the first investment announcement for the project, probably won’t be the last, so this is an ongoing expansion,” he said.
Rob Crosser, executive vice president and officer, administration, for ADI, distributed packets with information about the company’s nearly 29 years in the southeastern Jackson County town.
He said ADI manufactures electric rear axles, commercial automatic transmissions, electronic power steering columns, powershift transmissions and electric water pumps.
Wes Birdsong, finance manager for ADI, said the last round of tax abatements approved by the council covered electric water pump and e-Four electric rear axle products.
“That has been a huge change for our organization,” he said. “It’s brought profitability, and we’ve been able to attract and retain very skilled labor force here at Drivetrain.”
Birdsong said the new investment will bring new business to ADI, including Mazda SKYACTIV-Drive automatic transmissions for the CX-50 and CX-30 SUVs.
“The e-Four and EWP products, that was a huge skill up. It’s really brought a cutting-edge workforce into Drivetrain,” he said. “This (new investment) would just be an additional step to that skill level that we currently bring to the community.”
Josh Malancuk, president of JM Tax Advocates LLC, said he has helped ADI stay compliant with prior investments, and the company has “more than met” its capital expansion and “substantially exceeded” its job and gross wage commitments.
“We’re at about over 102% with our most recent incentive agreement but by and large well over 100% for every single agreement that’s in place, so that to me says this has been a good partnership,” he said. “The company has honored its commitments and has every intent of doing so as we partner together on future expansions.”
Crosser shared how ADI has given back to the community and area organizations.
“Since our beginning, we’ve given over $629,000 in charitable contributions and so far over $20,000 this year,” he said.
Looking at the packet provided to the council, President Terry Richey said she likes seeing various entities benefit from ADI’s giving back.
“I know that the school and the fire department, the town, everybody totally appreciates the contributions and the help,” she said. “When they reach out to AISIN, it’s always been easy to work with everybody and get that done.”
Councilman Jamy Greathouse said he’s a member of several of the organizations that have benefited from ADI’s support, and it’s appreciated.
“We are very, very lucky,” he said. “We don’t have a large amount of industry, but the handful of companies that we do have here do a really, really good job of working with us and taking care of this community, so thank you very much.”
AISIN Chemical’s new investment for equipment totals $3,233,229. Plump said that project will begin this month and be completed by the end of the year.
That will allow the company to add three new associates with combined salaries of $198,000. The overall workforce produces annual payroll of more than $6.2 million.
Tim Carter, executive vice president of ACI, said the company manufactures raw material-type products for sound-dampening material.
“That’s applied inside every car,” he said. “It goes underneath the carpet, and it stops the vibration from the road noise, your transmission, your engine, all that kind of stuff.”
The products made at ACI go in every Toyota, Nissan and Subaru produced in the United States, Carter said.
The new investment is for a mixer, which will give ACI three mixers capable of producing nearly 3.5 gallons of material a year.
ACI was established in 2006 inside ADI and remained there until its own building opened in 2011. That has since expanded, and a second building was constructed.
Councilman Chad Wilson said growing up in Crothersville, the area of the industrial park was just cornfields, and it’s now home to three industries. The third one is Cerrowire.
“Thank you for your involvement in the community,” Wilson told AISIN officials. “You guys have done a fantastic job out there, and I appreciate what you guys are doing for the community. I think I can speak on behalf of all of these (council members), too. We just appreciate you guys very much.”
Marty Pollio, the new president of Ivy Tech Community College, hosted a community listening session Aug. 26 at the Columbus campus.
As part of his 100-day plan, Pollio has visited all 19 campuses and conducted a handful of community listening sessions. K-12, college, economic development and other area officials attended and answered three questions: What’s great about Ivy Tech? What does Ivy Tech need to improve? What advice would you give Pollio in his new role?
Zach Spicer with JCIDC attended and shared a couple of great things about Ivy Tech in Jackson County. One is how college staff came to Seymour and Brownstown Central high schools last year to lead workshops on interviewing and résumé writing to help seniors prepare for mock interviews. The other is how Crothersville High School has offered an early college program for several years that allows students to receive an associate degree in general studies from Ivy Tech before they graduate from high school.
Pollio plans to take the feedback from the campus visits and community listening sessions and apply that as he moves forward in his new role.
Pollio said he is an Indiana University graduate. While there, he was a student manager for men’s basketball coach Bobby Knight for four years. Since then, his career has been in education, from being a high school assistant principal and a high school principal to superintendent of Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky, that state’s largest public school district. He started with Ivy Tech on July 1.
Jackson County high school students: What’s your business idea?
The 2026 Maverick Challenge Jackson County kicked off Aug. 25 at Seymour High School with Arann Banks with Brownstown Ewing Main Street, Darren Cain with Seymour Main Street and Zach Spicer with JCIDC visiting a couple of Dawn Jones’ classes to explain the program.
Maverick Challenge is a high school business planning competition that began in 2008 in Bartholomew County, and Jackson County joined the program in 2011. Two years ago, Bartholomew County ended the program, but Jackson County leaders kept it going in the county with a partnership between four sponsors — Brownstown Ewing Main Street, Seymour Main Street, Jackson County Chamber and JCIDC — and a funding partner — JCBank.
Students can work individually, with a partner or with more than one partner and pitch their business idea to local business professionals. They are paired with a mentor to help them work through the process, and in February, the top 10 finalists give oral presentations in front of a panel of judges. There, they have an opportunity to earn money and be named the 2026 Maverick Challenge Jackson County winner.
The program is open to high school students from around Jackson County. On Aug. 26, students from Brownstown Central and Crothersville high schools will learn about the program, and on Aug. 27, students from Medora High School will receive information about it.
For the second year in a row, the winner will be one of the finalists in the SPARK Tank competition, giving them a chance to win more money.
They also can enter the state’s Innovate WithIN competition, where again, more money is up for grabs.
Did you know Guardian Bikes in Seymour manufactures around 2,000 bicycles per day?
At Christmastime, that will increase to around 3,000.
That fact was shared Aug. 21 during tours of the bicycle company as part of its Supply Chain Independence Day celebration.
Guests toured three of Guardian’s eight facilities in the Freeman Field Industrial Park, seeing laser cutting, press and welding in one building, powder coating, decal, progressive press and frame subassembly in another and hub filling, wheel lacing and sub- and mainline assembly in another. The celebration coincided with the company continuing to shift production of its bicycle brand to the United States from China.
Guardian was formed after friends Brian Riley and Kyle Jansen appeared on the TV show “Shark Tank” in 2017 and businessman Mark Cuban became an investor and mentor. The headquarters moved from Texas to Seymour in 2022.
Cuban toured the facilities Aug. 21 before heading over to Jackson Live & Event Center to be a speaker. He sat down for a chat with Riley, and then they were joined by two others for a panel on American manufacturing.
Jackson County native Sam Markel, vice president of manufacturing and operations, also spoke, and Jackson County Chamber Director Dan Robison was the emcee.
The Jackson County native was a member of the staff from 1998 to 2001 as Workforce Partnership coordinator. In June of this year, she rejoined the staff in a part-time role to support the activities of JCIDC and the Workforce Partnership.
Dee graduated from Brownstown Central High School in 1980 and earned a degree in organizational management with an emphasis on human resources from Indiana University in 1984. She was employed with Osram Sylvania in Seymour and held various manufacturing management positions. In early 1998, she was hired by RR Donnelley in Seymour and worked in human resources in recruitment of hourly and salaried employees.
Dee and her husband, David, live in Brownstown. They are the parents of two children, Lindsey and Reid, and they have three grandsons.
