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Chris Caskey with AJ Horne Electric worked at the new MetalForm and Fab location in Nicholasville on Monday. (Photo by Mike Moore/mmoore@jessaminejournal.com / January 23, 2013) |
Slightly more than a year after Adcom Wire ceased operations in Nicholasville, a new company is poised to move into the facility located at 220 Stephens Drive.
MetalForm and Fab, which has been located in Lexington off Old Frankfort Pike since it opened in 2005, will move its operations to Nicholasville, according to Chris Adkins, operations manager and co-owner.
“We’re tentatively looking at mid-March, (but) April 1 is the deadline,” Adkins said. “We’ve absolutely got to be there by then.”
According to its website, MetalForm and Fab offers an “array of services from engineering and design, to complete assemblies.”
“We’re in metal fabrication,” Adkins said. “We take flat sheets and cut and bend and weld and do component parts. We are a contract manufacturer/job shop.”
Adkins said MetalForm and Fab serves many customers throughout Central Kentucky.
“One of our biggest customers is Denyo America in Danville,” he said. “They build portable generators; Big Ass Fans is one of our customers, and there’s about 30 others on top of that.”
The company has 30 employees after starting with nine in 2009. Adkins said the move to Nicholasville will offer more work space, and he expects the workforce to increase by 25 percent in the first year.
Adkins said the company began searching for a larger facility, and after seeing what other communities had to offer, the decision was not hard to make.
“The building was the best option for us,” he said. “We looked at several buildings in Fayette County, and nothing really appealed to us the way (the Nicholasville building) did. It also gets us about half the distance from our largest customer (Denyo).”
Jessamine County Economic Development Authority director Wayne Foster said the facility, which has more than 125,000 square feet, made the difference in the recruitment process.
“The main thing was the building,” Foster said. “The fact it was readily available helped, and it fit their needs. That’s always the case when communities have available buildings. That’s a strong draw for industry.”
Foster said the services MetalForm and Fab provide may also appeal to industries already in Nicholasville.
“They’re a good fit,” Foster said. “In fact, at our last manufactures forum and meeting, there was some discussion with Chris about them doing some work for some of the local industries. So I think they’re going to mesh real well with the kind of industry we already have.”
Adkins said the relocation to Nicholasville will also be a homecoming of sorts personally.
I’ve lived in Jessamine County for the past 25 years, and I’ve always worked in Lexington, but my kids go to school (in Jessamine County), so it’s kind of like coming home,” he said.
He also said that many of his employees are from the Cynthiana area, and for the first six months, the company is going to rent a van to help employees commute to Nicholasville.
“We’re going to rent a van and provide that for them,” Adkins said. “Until employees decide if they want to move south with us.”
As the April date approaches, MetalForm is in the process of refurbishing the facility.
“Basically, we’re just doing electric and air to support our equipment,” Adkins said.
For more information on MetalForm and Fab, visit www.metalformandfab.com.
