Longtime manufacturing company returning to Dayton region as part of consolidation efforts
A manufacturing company that started in the Dayton region nearly 70 years ago is finding its way back home. The relocation of the business will bring 16 jobs into the region and is the result of a consolidation of two businesses.
SafeGrain Inc., a quality control and hazard monitoring company for bulk materials in the agricultural industry, is consolidating its Wapakoneta location at 902 Dixie Highway and the Loveland location of Maxi-Tronic at 417 Wards Corner Road under one name and one roof at 10522 Success Lane in Washington Township. The company began in 1954 out of the original owner’s home on Yankee Street in Centerville – less than half a mile from the new location of the company.
For Zach Carr, who took ownership of the company in August of last year alongside his wife, Stacey, consolidating everything under the SafeGrain umbrella and relocating the company back to the Dayton region was never a question.
“I grew up in Dayton, it’s where my roots are, and it’s important to me that my business is in Dayton,” Carr said.
In addition to bringing business back to the Dayton region, consolidating both SafeGrain and Maxi-Tronic under one roof will help streamline all of the company’s operations and reduce overhead costs, allowing the company to move toward more research and development efforts.
Prior to taking over ownership of SafeGrain, Carr spent nearly two decades working in medical device sales. Wanting to create something bigger than himself and leave a legacy for his three daughters, he met Bob Hothem with The Alternative Board of Miami Valley several years ago and expressed his interest in starting a business. Carr was immediately met with advice from Hothem, his mentor and friend of several years.
“He said, don’t start a business; buy a business,” Carr said. “The main things that I was interested in was something sustainable and something that could be scaled, and I found SafeGrain through Bob.”
The new facility at Success Lane is 13,500 square feet, with 2,500 square feet of office space and a dedicated engineering space and warehouse space for production. After deciding to consolidate the locations of SafeGrain and Maxi-Tronic under one roof, Carr met with a builder who drew a mock-up of what the build of the new space would look like; the space at Success Lane ended up being the exact design in the exact location Carr wanted, and he lucked into securing it when it became available.
While the process of consolidating SafeGrain and Maxi-Tronic is near completion, this is just the beginning of things for Carr. In March, the company released its official rebranding; a new website is well underway and reaching completion with an expected launch in a few weeks, new operations incorporating new software and processes will be part of the consolidation, and the company moves into the new facility this week.
Source: https://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/news/2023/05/18/safegrain-returning-to-dayton-region.html