County commissioner: Economic development trip to Italy produced prospects

MUNCIE, Ind. −Delaware County Commissioner Shannon Henry and Delaware County Economic development Director Brad Bookout returned home Oct. 21 from a 10-day trip to Italy, where they went searching for additional business development prospects to bring back to the county.

Bookout said the trip produced several candidates interested in Delaware County, including a prospect planning to make a visit to Delaware County. Bookout declined to name the company or its industry at this point.

Italy has been a fruitful place in the past for the county to land manufacturing prospects, including INOX, which built its $20 million North American headquarters in Delaware County, creating 100 local jobs. The company is a major stainless steel supplier to the appliance industry based out of the Province of Padua, in northern Italy. The plant was built along Cowan Road at the Industria Centre Industrial Park in 2021.

The county has also attracted Filtrec, a maker of industrial filters, which purchased an industrial building just south of Muncie and started operations in June at the former Taurus Tool building on Delaware County Road 400-S near Ind. 67, Muncie Power Products, established locally in 1935, has been part of Interpump Group, a multinational corporation based in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Last year Muncie Power Products purchased a former industrial building in Park One/332 industrial park to consolidate part of its operations.

Bookout and commissioners have helped attract a core group of Italian companies operating locally that, in turn, make it easier for other Italian companies to move to Delaware County when wanting to enter or build operations in the North American market.

"It's less stressful for them," Henry said of the Italians going to a place where others have already established themselves in the community.

Five years ago Bookout and a delegation from Delaware County made the first trip to Italy seeking to build business links and lure companies. Also going with Henry and Bookout on this last trip was Bill Walters, executive director of ECI Regional Planning District. Bookout also serves as senior project manager for the District, which work on economic development, planning and grant development in Delaware, Grant, Jay and Blackford counties.

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Trips to Italy have successfully built connections

Henry said this latest trip to Italy involved meeting with representatives of various Italian businesses that might be interested in coming to America by way of Delaware County.

Bookout said the method used to bring the business people together to hear and consider Delaware county is proprietary. But it has been successful.

The time spent with the business contacts allow each party to tell their story and describe their needs.

"Seventy-five percent of the U.S. population is within a day's drive of Indiana," Bookout said.

Once the businesses learn of the advantages of Delaware County's location and cost compared with coastal communities, they are attracted to learn more, he said.

Henry said that he didn't think some of the officials from Italian companies had even thought of locating operations in North America until the Delaware County group approached them.

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Henry said the language barrier could be daunting at times, but usually there was someone at each company they met with who could speak English.

Bookout said that Italy has been facing the same economic challenges as the rest of Europe, given the war between Russia and Ukraine and the challenges posed by a shortage of gas and oil. North America's position in the world can look welcoming.

"America's economy is 10 times the size of Italy's," he said. Given the relative circumstances, coming to America and Indiana to make a profit can be attractive.

But Henry said it is a two-way street. He said officials go about learning how the foreign companies do business and operate to assure they are a good fit for Delaware County. As a commissioner, he is familiar with complaints from residents living near a factory that is not a good neighbor.

In addition to the pending prospect visit, Bookout said there are several other potential relationships established on the trip that could develop into a business arrangements beneficial to Delaware County.

Henry said the trip was a lot of hard work with back-to-back meetings across the days spent on the ground after a more than 13-hour flight.

"It was rough," he said.

Bookout worksfor Augusta Consulting LLC. In Yorktown, which contracts with Delaware County for economic development work. Walters is also a senior project manager for Augusta. Lisa Bookout, Brad Bookout's wife, is founder and president of Augusta.

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She also went and worked on the the recent Italy trip, Brad Bookout said. He estimated cost of the travel and stay was about $10,000, with Augusta and ECI Regional Planning District picking up the bill.

The county would later be charged for its portion of expenses, Brad Bookout said. According to a contract agreement between the county and Augusta, Delaware County pays the firm $20,054.28 a month for its economic development work and $6,883 a month for its work providing redevelopment services.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Delaware County returns to Italy searching for development prospects