Home-grown high-tech company proves to be best possible for a small town.

Marion Manufacturing, Inc., may come close to being the ideal industry
any community would want.
A visitor to Marion, Kansas, might not even guess the high-tech employer of 42
full-time employees is there just a block off Main Street behind the
grocery store and veterinary clinic.
Plus, the company is family owned and run by Jack Richmond, a man whom
Susan Cooper, city development director, calls a “true visionary.”
“He’s able to look at a business decision, and see what it will do for
his community as well as how it will affect his company,” Cooper said.
“He has the knack that not every businessman has, to look around him,
and see the big picture.
“Marion Manufacturing’s a homegrown business, and the city appreciates
the stability and understanding a company like that has for its
community. It shows all those entrepreneurs who are trying to get off
the ground that they can possibly do well starting here.
“It’s not that we don’t appreciate those businesses that move in from
the outside, but we absolutely recognize that Marion Manufacturing is
one of our best assets.”
Inside the company, Tom Stout, general manager, said the people who work
there see it somewhat the same way. Stout said there is an emphasis on
creativity, a mastery of technology while still being able to cross-work
jobs, “and we try to have fun.”
Stout himself said he came to work from his home in McPherson to “fill
in for a couple of weeks, and ended up staying six years.”
Schools in Marion and Hillsboro have made use of the company, sending
industrial vo-tech students in for “on-the-job training.”
In addition to the regular work force, Stout said the company hires
farmers who want to work in their off-season on a regular basis and
other part-time temporaries.
Extra education for work was provided employees when the company
received an $11,000 state grant, which it was required to match, for
training in such fields as drafting, a benefit Stout said the company
will try for again.
“We’re pleased with the quality and reliability of people we have here.
“We’ve been able to have security with good benefits for our regular
workers without layoffs even in down economic times. It’s been a little
slow, but never off more than 1 or 2 percent. It’s amazing how Jack and
the people here have gone beyond the usual in dependability,” Stout said.
Design and creativity have helped Marion Manufacutring develop a
reputation for high-tech sophisticated work in building computer
controlled automation metal roll-forming equipment from scratch for
companies across the country, from Florida to the West Coast with
heavier concentrations on the East Coast and the Midwest, Stout said.
Customer credits include doing all the cheese shaker lids for Pizza Hut,
machined parts and assemblies for Alstom Power, tooling press and
tooling for Case Corporation, machined parts for Cashco, Inc., machined
parts for Caterpillar, designs and proto-type parts for Certainteed
Plastics, designs and automation equipment for Enersys, Inc.,
automation, weld fixtures and other work for Hay & Forage, roll-forming
equipment for J.A. Brewer Enterprises, Inc., machined wheel parts for
Marsh Racing Technologies, designs, machined parts, shears and
assemblies for Mega Mfg., Inc., designs, automation equipment and
stamped parts for Midtec, Inc., assembly and check fixtures for plastic
for Norland Plastics Co., automated battery acid filling equipment for
north Star Battery Co., roll-forming and shearing equipment for Richard
N. Paul & Sons, designs and automation equipment for Rubbermaid
Specialty Products, roll forming and shearing equipment for Steell
Building Supply, designs and automation equipment for The Coleman Co.,
roll forming and shearing equipment for Union Corrugating Co., designs
and automation equipment for Vanguard Industries, and others.
Richmond began manufacturing in Marion in the mid-1970s from an old
blacksmith shop in the west part of town as Marion Die & Fixture with
partners, Roger Hoffman, John Crofoot and Dave Crofoot. That company
still operates from a newer building in the west part of Marion under
the ownership of Bradbury Co., Inc.
Richmond left there to open Marion Manufacturing in October 1979, with
his wife, Joyce, who still works in the mornings. They are still the
owners with Jack as president.
Their three sons work in the company: Dave is shop foreman, Tim is
assembly foreman, and Alan, along with Keith Conyers and Ben Sheehan,
design equipment working closely with Jeff Goering.
The company’s manufacturing building looks as if it is spacious enough
to cover a couple of acres along Coble Street, with an equally large
outside yard area and a new painting room across the street on a
recently acquired acre. It’s a big contrast to the blacksmith shop where
Richmond started, which resembles a small farm shed in the photo he shows.
Stout said ideas for new products, the ability to commit the ideas to
paper and then prototypes, keep the company moving forward. An automated
line of bagging equipment for dog food or other feeds that the company
will operate for one customer occupies one aisle of floor space beyond
the rows of computerized lathes and other company equipment.
Beyond it in a corner is a sports-junkie’s dream, a computer controled
basketball machine in a cage with a goal that changes positions and
angles for a shooter practicing beyond the net, and a continuous flow of
basketballs being fed back for him to shoot.
The machine includes a camera that photographs the player, showing his
stance both when he shoots correctly and, when he’s missing, to help
coach corrections, Stout said.
The machine, which is 24 feet deep by 8 feet wide by 16 feet tall comes
with a professional regulation basketball goal. It is the latest
prototype in a series of efforts by the company which currently is being
sold for marketing by Stryk, Inc., of North Carolina, Stout said. The
machine can be compacted down to 8 feet tall for moving and storage.
He would expect the final price of the basketball machine to be within
the budget of professional or college teams or upscale sports bars and
clubs.
Stout said the machine is being tried out by the Charlotte Hornets
professional basketball team, and by Juliens Sports Bars with about 36
locations in the East. There’s a promotional effort for the basketball
machine in Las Vegas. There also are two of the earlier machines at
Olympic Villages in Germany.
Stout himself has a history in design and manufacturing in neighboring
communities long before he came to Marion, and he recalls that one of
his more reliable providers back then was Jack Richmond at Marion
Manufacturing.