Apr. 5—BLUEFIELD — A new manufacturer setting up shop in Mercer County is seeing plenty of applications after announcing last month that it's looking for employees ready to start building homes.

Jonathan Hodson, president of Omnis Building Technologies (OBT) Bluefield, LLC, took a moment Tuesday to talk before participating in the Entrepreneur 2 Entrepreneur (E2E) session being hosted at the Bluefield Arts Center.

The new Omnis facility being built at I-77 Exit 1 in Bluefield will manufacture Composite Insulated Building units (CIBU) that will be used to create residential homes. This new facility will be building 3,000 housing units a year. Components constructed at Omnis will be shipped and then assembled on-site to make pre-designed homes. Once delivered, they are turn-key homes.

Hodson said that since his company started seeking applicants last March, it has received a lot of resumes.

"The response has been fantastic," Hodson said. "We were part of the jobs fair at Bluefield State (University) recently. We had enormous support. The report that came back to me from our HR director was that we had over 75 applications that came in. Many of them are very, very qualified and we're very excited with the response in the community."

The new manufacturing facility needs "a bare minimum" of about 65 employees to get equipment turned on and running, he said.

"We're anticipating to hire a total of four shifts, a 24-hour clock, over the next months as we ramp up production; and we should cap out in the ballpark of 200, 225," Hodson said. "We should have all the equipment in place by August with a soft start, with production beginning and the first homes we're anticipating to send out in the fourth quarter of this year."

Hodson was asked what types of applicants his company is seeking.

"Good ones!" he replied with a smile. "We're looking for people with a range of skill sets. We do need people in engineering with CAD capabilities and drafting capabilities, but we also need people who are able to handle a more challenging job on their feet, being able to multitask on the floor as we go through the different production processes. We will be offering training programs in association with BEDA (Bluefield Economic Development Authority) for some of the more job-specific things. They're working very closely with us to help us tailor that program."

Hodson described the reception that Omnis Building Technologies has received with one word.

"Fantastic," he said. "We couldn't be happier being a partner with the community here. Great folks to work with on the government side and job creation side. Just a fantastic community in general. We couldn't be gladder to be here."

Local business people came to the entrepreneur workshop to share their experience and ideas with people looking to start their own businesses. Hodson was among the people who shared his knowledge.

"I think a great message for the entrepreneurs here locally is that anything is possible," he said. "I think the message of hope is really important. I think that if you can build the right network of individuals, if you can build the right partnerships, they can guide you. Tenacity is very important. Really, you can achieve a lot with the support of just a few."

Another hope is the Omnis facility will inspire other businesses to follow the company's lead.

"I think that we're hopeful that impact we can have here in Bluefield will continue throughout Mercer County," Hodson said. "That we can use our company as something to point to as to what's possible in the area, and we're hoping that other likeminded businesses will grab ahold of what we found so attractive about the area and join us down here."

Omnis applications are available online at obtbluefield.com. On that website click on "contact" and then "careers" for access to the application, which is completed online.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com