AUSTINTOWN, Ohio – Jimmy Durkin opted to explore a different path for his future than enrolling in college.
Instead, he joined the Ohio WorkAdvance initiative, a training program that introduces the fundamental skills and basics to those without any real experience in manufacturing so they can succeed in the industrial workforce.
Eight years later, Durkin is a mill/turn operator at Xaloy LLC, a global manufacturer of high-grade metallic barrels and screws that are mostly used in the plastics-extrusion and injection industry.
“I’m trying to get as much done as I can today,” Durkin told Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, who toured the Victoria Road plant on Monday morning. Tressel’s visit was part of his statewide WorkOhio Job Connection Tour, an initiative launched earlier this year that provides personal support for those seeking new career paths, training programs and other opportunities.
Durkin, a graduate of Austintown Fitch High School, is the last of the WorkAdvance clients still at the job at Xaloy. Others have either moved to different companies or relocated from the region.
“We like hometown guys,” Tressel said with a smile.
Touting the Workforce
Tressel told reporters after the tour that companies such as Xaloy are vital to the future of advanced manufacturing, and training the workforce is equally important to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
“WorkOhio is just one more way to see if we can raise the awareness of opportunities that are out there in the state of Ohio,” Tressel said. “We want them to know there are great opportunities, there is great training.”
The WorkOhio program is designed to deliver personal contact with job seekers who inquire through the initiative’s website, WorkOhio.gov, Tressel said. “The first thing we tell them is that you’re going to talk with a human within two days,” he said. These job counselors are trained to identify what type of work the individual is interested in, and what opportunities are available in each of the seven regional job hubs designated by JobsOhio.
“We want to take you to the opportunities that are right here in front of us,” he said, noting the Mahoning Valley is part of Lake to River Economic Development region.
“Hosting Lt. Governor Tressel as part of the WorkOhio initiative is a great opportunity to highlight the important role manufacturing plays in our region. At Xaloy, we are proud to create meaningful career opportunities and build the skilled workforce needed to support modern manufacturing,” said Ryan Engelhardt, Director of North American Operations at Xaloy. “We appreciate the Lt. Governor’s leadership in advancing workforce development across Ohio and are honored to showcase the innovation and talent driving our operations here in Austintown.”
Tressel said that he was impressed with the skills and talents displayed by Xaloy’s workforce, and that the company is moving forward with new investments in advanced manufacturing.
“They’re working on things that no one else in the world is doing,” Tressel said. “It was fun to hear that the state of Ohio has been very helpful.”
Looking Toward the Future
Xaloy is an international company whose global headquarters is in Austintown. It also has plants in Pulaski, Va.; Thailand; Toronto, Canada; and a light manufacturing operation in Milan, Italy. The company also has sales offices in Europe, Japan, India, and China.
“We’re pretty well dispersed,” said C. Andrew Brickman, Xaloy’s chairman and president of Altair Investments, which acquired the company’s barrel and screw division in 2021.
The Austintown location employs approximately 145 and is in the process of constructing a new research and design lab that has helped develop new techniques to expand production capacity and increase efficiency in polymer processing.
“This cell makes a very unique product,” Brickman said. Xaloy’s new technology allows it to identify sections of a barrel or screw where high-end materials could be used. This enables the company to target where the materials are used within the component instead of manufacturing the entire piece with the more costly metal.
“It’s very expensive material,” Brickman said. “If you made the whole barrel out of that material it would be four or five times the cost – no one could afford it.”
Brickman said the process is already working for its customers. Five years ago, he said that new products – that is, products that were developed over the last 24 months – constituted between 1% and 2% of Xaloy’s portfolio.
“Today, that number is 20%,” he said. “We’ve done 10 times the number of new products to market.”
JobsOhio announced in late 2023 that the project – estimated at $7.4 million according to earlier reports – received $2.2 million through the state’s JobsOhio R&D Center Grant program.
“It was a nice public/private partnership,” Brickman said. “I think they work the best because you’ve got people interacting and trying to come up with great solutions. The state of Ohio is doing a very good job in finding sweet spots for manufacturing.”
Brickman said that workforce training is equally important in order to advance the skills needed to work on more sophisticated equipment and technology. “We need a lot of advanced training because it’s changing rapidly and we need our workforce to change with it.”
Pictured at top: Tressel with Ryan Engelhardt, director of North American Operations at Xaloy, and Xaloy Chairman C. Andrew Brickman.