After 40 Years, Batesville Tool & Die Preparing For Future
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAs Batesville Tool & Die looks back at 40 years of operation in Indiana, its chief executive officer is looking toward the future. The automotive parts supplier began with just six employees and now employs some 1,000 throughout North America, including 450 in Batesville. Jody Fledderman, whose father founded the company in the 1970s, says the company’s is engaged in several workforce initiatives.
"We decided to have the business in a state that’s very manufacturing pro, very business pro, so there’s been a lot of business attraction," Fledderman said on Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick. "The wave of the automakers coming to the United States, we’re right in the middle of it. It just kind of exploded around us and we took advantage of it and we’ve seen a lot of opportunity and growth from that."
Batesville Tool & Die has recently begun efforts to boost its workforce. In an interview on Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick, Fledderman said the company is making a "huge investment" in skilling up its workers, including partnership with Batesville High School and the Achieve Your Degree program in conjunction with Ivy Tech Community College.
"We need them to be more capable and be able to do more things because we want to pay them more money and we want to get more done," said Fledderman. "They can take classes at Ivy Tech. We’ll pay for all their classes if they pass them and every job in our plant is going to be able to have an industry-recognized certification level all the way up an associate’s degree."
In addition to its Batesville facility, the company has metal stamping plants in Mexico and South Carolina, as well as a sales office in Michigan.