Governor Steve Bullock announced last Friday that Hamilton-based IronHaus, Inc., which manufactures high-end handcrafted iron fireplace doors and systems, is one of eight businesses in Montana awarded grant funds for job creation. The company has been awarded $37,500 from the Big Sky Economic Development Trust Fund to implement a plan is designed to create five new jobs in a year. If all goes well the first year, IronHaus is scheduled to get another $37,000 for creating another five jobs. The company currently employees 14 people.
“The ability to be awarded a grant that will facilitate the implementation of new equipment, and ultimately create more jobs and business, allows our company to greatly expand into our national marketplace,” said IronHaus CEO/General Manager Tim Campbell.
The money is received on a per employee basis when the person is hired. Campbell said that the grant helps with the cost of the training period where an employee may not be as productive at first.
Campbell grew up working in his father’s shop. His father, Maynard Gueldenhaar, made a name for himself building custom made wood burning iron stoves and inserts. As Campbell tells it, a few issues came together in the 1980s and 1990s that spelled the end of many small stove manufacturers. It was the double whammy of EPA regulations requiring costly testing and approval and the constant lowering of the emission standards requiring costly additions to the stoves.
“More and more it took someone operating in a national market and producing a standardized product to absorb those kinds of costs,” said Campbell. “It put the mom and pop operations out of business.”
Campbell left the state for a while and gave up on the woodstove business. But as he worked in the area around Phoenix he noticed that fireplace doors were a popular item. He said out of four companies producing them in the area he worked as a salesperson for three of them.
Then he came back to Montana and started building fireplace doors himself. In 1995 he started IronHaus. Things went so well that he built a shop in 2000 and the business has been growing ever since.
“I would guess that we are the fourth largest fireplace door manufacturer in the nation, out of ten,” said Campbell.
Governor Bullock said these kinds of effective public-private partnerships are critical to growing Montana’s economy. He said, “Every project funded through these programs is helping to create opportunities for workers and to build a stronger and more competitive economy.”
Bullock said that the $293,360 of grant funding being made available through the Big Sky Economic Development Trust Fund (BSTF) and the Primary Sector Workforce Training Grant (WTG) programs will help Montana businesses in eight communities create 42 new jobs.
Other recipients of BSTF funds include:
• The City of Bozeman received $75,000 of BSTF funds to assist Montana Meat Company to expand, which allow the company to create 10 new jobs in Bozeman. The BSTF funds will be used for wage reimbursement. Montana Meat Company is meat broker which focuses on bring grass-fed and natural meat products to customers.
• Bear Paw Development of Havre received $15,750 to assist Missouri River Medical Center (MRMC) with a financial feasibility study. MRMC is a 7-bed Critical Access Hospital, 45-bed nursing home, 6-bed assisted living facility and a rural health clinic located in Fort Benton.
• Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of Poplar received $26,250 to prepare a workforce study which will allow the Tribes to better assess its workforce needs.
• Great Northern Development Corporation received $13,000 to assist Redwater Manor Independent and Assisted Living Complex, Inc. with a completion of a feasibility and market study to support the development of an assisted and independent living facility in Circle.
• Snowy Mountain Development Corporation received $8,000 to assist Dirty Oscars Annex MT, LLC with the completion of a feasibility study with structural analysis to determine the next steps in preserving and re-developing the historic structure.
Primary Sector Workforce Training Grants were awarded to:
• Alpine Precision, Inc. received $47,860 of WTG funds to train 10 full-time jobs. The funds will be used to train new hires in equipment skills, industries standards and AS9000. Alpine Precision, Inc. is located in Libby and manufactures precision machined parts primarily for the semi-conductor aerospace and defense industries.
• Columbia Pacific Finance, LLC received $70,000 of WTG funds to train 12 full-time and 2 part-time jobs. The funds will be used to provide one-on-one training on the industry, technology and sales methods needed to be successful in their market. Columbia Pacific Finance, LLC is a premium financing agent for insurance agencies and is proposing to establish an office in Missoula.