Starke County's industrial base is varied with heavy emphasis on the steel, related
components, plastics, automotive, agricultural, home, and container industries.
A distinct advantage to industry provided by the Starke County Economic Development Foundation is the ability for Starke County Industries to work together in producing their respective products. Some examples are: Hoosier Custom Plastics provides the plastic injection onto the
fineblanked parts manufactured by MPI; Technicoat LLC does some powder coating for
Hoosier Custom Plastics; Toll Brothers and Toll Integrated Systems, through its
contracted truck repair facilities maintains a delivery fleet for White Flyer; and
Dragon Industries does some work for Kruz, Inc.
American Oak Preserving Company
American Oak Preserving Company manufactures and imports home accent décor items
which are sold in small stores and large chain stores throughout the United States.
Beginning as a family-owned business in 1916, it first began preserving oak leaves
and has since expanded to all types of natural home décor items. American Oak Preserving
Company employs 100 persons. The Company recently finished construction of new administrative
offices and showroom for their products, thereby resulting in 14 additional jobs
for the North Judson community.
Dragon Industries, Inc.
Dragon repairs truck trailers and also are dealers in tarps, fenders, bedliners, and other items for tractor trailers, as well as doing aluminum and steel welding and fabrication, currently employing approximately 10 persons.
Hoosier Custom Plastics
-> Ecogolf
Hoosier Custom Plastics specializes in tight tolerance and plastic insert molding
applications with specialties in injection molding, plastic molding, plastic insert
molding, and over molding. Additional services include design, mold-flow analysis,
assembly, sonic welding, and tooling services for both Asian and domestic sources.
Ecogolf produces biodegradable golf tees. Hoosier Custom Plastics employs 34 persons.
I.P. Callison and Sons
I.P. Callison and Sons is the market leader in the global supply of premium mint
oils, mint flavors, and mint - related ingredients. Callison has two divisions in
Starke County, the first being its Research and Development in the Town of Hamlet
and its storage and shipping division in the City of Knox. Callison is the leading
buyer of mint oil in Indiana. I.P. Callison and Sons employs 23 persons.
J.W. Hicks
J.W. Hicks provides a full range of quality refractory products and services for
the metal industry through specialty refractory products. Equipment required for
on-site refractory use or placement is also supplied. J.W. Hicks employs 40 persons.
Johnny on the Spot
Starke County’s newest industry assembles, leases, sells, and services portable toilets. The company is currently readying a building in the North Judson Industrial Park for opening this business.
Knox Fertilizer Company
Knox Fertilizer Company blends fertilizers and provides research on fertilizers
and their release for the residential, golf course, and athletic field markets.
Knox Fertilizer blends for its own lines as well as other well-known labels. Through
its research efforts, Knox Fertilizer holds many patents. Knox Fertilizer employs
75 persons.
Kruz, Inc.
Kruz, Inc. is a high value manufacturer of aluminum trailers, “Ravens by Kruz,”
and steel “Kruz” trailers used in the heavy construction and scrap fields. Kruz
ships throughout the United States, Canada and Iceland. Kruz employs 23 persons.
MPI - Indiana Fineblanking Division
Indiana Fineblanking is a Division of MPI International, which was a pioneer in
the United States Fineblanking industry. As such, it is a global leader and highly
specialized supplier of fineblanked components and innovative die design, process
engineering, and customer service. Fineblanking is a high-precision, near-net process
combining principles of metal stamping and cold-forming. There are currently 299
employees at the Indiana Fineblanking Division.
Norton Packaging
Norton has operated in Hamlet, Indiana since 1996 supplying containers that hold a variety of products for the paint, janitorial, petrochemical, agricultural, adhesive, and food packaging industries. Current employment is approximately 85 persons.
Philip Konrad & Sons, Inc.
Konrad has been in operation in Starke County since 1957, being an architectural millwork plant manufacturing kitchen cabinets and business office suites out of wood, plastic laminates, and solid surface materials. Their primary customers include schools, libraries, governmental offices, medical facilities, banks, and churches. Current employment is 14 persons.
Poly Form International, Inc.
Poly Form is a custom turnkey manufacturer of thermoformed plastic parts for various industries, working with a variety of polymers pioneering new technologies and materials. The company employs 4 persons.
Reagent Chemical and Research,
Inc. has recently constructed two buildings and 6,155 lineal feet to the existing County Lead Track in order to equip new rubber-lined tank cars and maintain and repair its existing fleet of rail cars, thereby adding an additional 31 jobs over time. Another division of this company, White Flyer, has been operating in Knox for some time.
Sabre Manufacturing, LLC
Sabre Manufacturing is an environmental equipment manufacturing company operating
one of the largest blast and paint facilities in northern Indiana with a main emphasis
on the production of large steel environmental waste containers, which are shipped
to all parts of the United States and Canada. Sabre Manufacturing employs 130 persons.
Standard Pallet, Inc.
Standard buys scrap wood pallets, tears them apart, and builds new pallets out of the salvaged wood, primarily for the auto and HVAC industries, but the pallets are used by almost any other industry as well. The company currently employs approximately 10 persons.
Stelrema Corporation
Stelrema is a full service supplier of precision injection molded plastics and elastomers for the medical, automotive, and electronic industries. The company’s employment is currently about 20 persons.
Technicoat, LLC
Technicoat is a full service powder coating job shop that offers several services to aid in metal finishing, including powder coating, media blasting, metal pretreatment, surface repair, minor welding and fabrication. The company uses an oven that can accommodate items up to 14 feet in length and 10 feet in width.
Thermo Products
Thermo Products has operated in North Judson, Indiana since 1949. The current operation does engineering, customer service, and logistics. The company manufactures Forced Warm Air HVAC Products and currently employs 12 persons on site.
The Federal Group
Federal manufactures doors, windows, and millwork and currently employs 33 persons.
Toll Integrated Systems, Division
of Toll Brothers
Toll Brothers is America's largest premiere luxury home builder. The Knox, Indiana
facility produces housing components for the use of the Toll Brothers developments
throughout the Midwest. Ultimate employment is projected to be 300 persons, with current employement of 22.
Traffic Control Specialists, Inc.
Traffic Control provides traffic signs, striping, parking bumpers and equipment, and also engages in parking area maintenance and marking. They can also produce plastic, aluminum, and wood signs including all traffic control signs in multiple sizes. The company also serves as a subcontractor to several prime highway contractors and they currently employ 10 persons.
Varipak, Inc.
Varipak is North America’s leading manufacturer of foil laminated and other specialty paperboard lids, and also provides metal edged corrugated blanks and folding cartons for interfold aluminum sheets. The company currently employs about 25 persons.
White Flyer, Division of Reagent
Chemical & Research, Inc.
White Flyer is the world's largest producer of shooting targets, both pitch and
biodegradable. Targets are produced for the sportsman, the United States military,
and for international competitions. White Flyer employs 23 persons.
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