N O R I T a M E R I C
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
NORIT AMERICAS The Norit Americas facility at MidAmerica produces activated carbon products used as purification solutions for numerous commercial applications. In 2008, the Norit Pryor Plant employees took part in celebrations recognizing Norit’s 90 years of long and rich history in providing activated carbon in the world marketplace. The company has evolved to become the world’s largest manufacturer of activated carbon with over 150 different grades in powdered, granular and extruded forms produced from several different raw materials. In 1976, a pilot plant was built in Niagara Falls to test the viability of the patented process of manufacturing activated carbon. With success of the pilot, work began to design a full-scale plant including site selection. The selection committee looked at various locations around the country and selected the site at MidAmerica based upon several factors including central location, low utility costs and the availability of a solid workforce. Construction began in 1978. Celebrating History: Snapshots & Milestones from MidAmerica's First Fifty Years. Norit is the world’s largest manufacturer of activated carbon with the most diverse product line available from a single supplier. OCTOBER Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 RAE Corp. deed transfer 1982 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Endot Denny’s deed transfer 1998 deed transfer 2009 Yom Kippur 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Inside the Norit warehouse, an employee loads a IBT, Inc. paper bag of product for delivery to a customer. Columbus Day private lease 2010 Other logistics options are super sacks or bulk truck. 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Williams Holiday Inn HEMSaw Construction AIRGAS Express deed transfer 1986 deed transfer 1987 lease 1973 deed transfer 2007 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Red Devil deed transfer 1993 30 31 Halloween Solae Company lease 1974 The Norit Group develops and applies state-of-the-art purification technologies to help In 1995, Norit hired Chris Soap for a position as a heavy clients meet environmental, health and safety equipment operator. Today, he’s their Plant Manager. challenges. Headquartered in The Netherlands, Norit supplies consumables, components, systems, and solutions for water, beverage, food, chemical, pharmaceutical and marine industries. www.maip.com RED DEVIL The 1979 Red Devil National Sales Meeting in Florida. The company was already well positioned as a leading provider of home improvement products. It will be 140 years old in 2012. The Red Devil facility as it was in 1977. Production actually started at the plant in January 1974. The company, which now has 85 employees, began as Smith & Hemenway in 1872 in Hill, New Hampshire. During a buying trip to Sweden, company founder Landon P. Smith heard a blacksmith remark “those little red devils” after sparks from a forge singed his arm. More modern and efficient cartridge molding The name stuck in Smith’s mind and upon his return he began to label machines were installed during the early many of the tools he sold with the Red Devil trade name. 2000’s to accommodate the fast growth of private-label business. In the early 1980’s, a bank of cartridge molding machines were always on-the-job. And, so were people like Operator Tommy Gilpin. Celebrating History: Snapshots & Milestones from MidAmerica's First Fifty Years. Steelworkers work on the red iron superstructure of the new warehouse addition. NOVEMBER Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 5 HEMSaw original lease 1976 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Veteran’s Day 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 L&S Hauling The Red Devil plant at MidAmerica also houses the lease 2002 firm’s national research and development lab. 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Thanksgiving 27 28 29 30 Red Devil is still a privately-owned different products in all. In addition family business with state-of-the- to producing caulks, sealants and art manufacturing facilities at tools under the Red Devil brand MidAmerica. The company is the name, the firm manufactures only manufacturer to offer such a private label products for some broad and diversified line of hand of the nation’s largest hardware tools and chemical products for and home center chains. professional and home maintenance Owner Mary Lee, MidAmerica General Manager Sanders Mitchell and Owner George and improvement – more than 400 Lee, Jr. review the plans for the 1977 dedication of new production equipment at the Pryor plant. The headquarters moved from New Jersey to Tulsa in 2005. SPECIAL FRIENDS Michael C. Randle, Editor and Publisher of Southern Business & Development magazine joins Oklahoma Lt. Governor Mary Fallin and MidAmerica Administrator Sanders Mitchell at a 2005 reception held in honor of the Lt. Governor at MidAmerica’s Russell Hunt Lodge. In 2000, Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology opened a workforce development campus at MidAmerica. On hand for the ribbon cutting: (L-R) OSU IT President Bob Klabenes, OSU Executive Vice President Dr. Marvin Keener, State Representative Tad Jones, State Senator Frank Shurden, MidAmerica Administrator Sanders Mitchell, former Oklahoma Governor David Walters, MidAmerica Board Members Rob Gilbert and Dobie Langenkamp, and State Representative Larry Rice. University of Oklahoma President David Boren visited MidAmerica in 2006 and attended a meeting of the park’s Plant Managers Association. Mary Thetford and Buzzi GRDA CEO Kevin Easley addressed the Pryor Area Chamber of Commerce lunch forum Unicem USA Plant Manager David Puzan listen to Boren in early October 2004. during the session. Celebrating History: Snapshots & Milestones from MidAmerica's First Fifty Years. At a meeting of the Pryor Chamber of Commerce, Oklahoma Governor David Hall shakes the hand of a guest while MidAmerica Administrator Gene Redden stands next to him. Hall was the 20th Governor of Oklahoma serving from 1971-1975. DECEMBER Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Q.M.I. deed transfer 2008 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 GRDA Phillips Coal-Fired Driscopipe / Urgent Care of Phillips & Jordan Contractor Superintendent Complex Performance Green Country Pat Williams briefs Congressman Dan Boren and his wife, Andrea, on the construction deed transfer 1977 Pipe lease 1965 deed transfer 1999 timetable at a MidAmerica facility. 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Hanukkah Mia’s Italian Grill deed transfer 2003 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Christmas Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry watched as MidAmerica Administrator Sanders Mitchell exchanges “high fives” with Lloyd Taylor, Director of Global Operations for Google. MidAmerica’s growth has been fueled by many factors – including the personal relationships with special friends that have been nurtured over five decades. The Chairman of Phillips Petroleum, Sergey Kuznetsov, a businessman from the Soviet Union, W.W. Keeler, tours the Driscopipe and Sanders Mitchell discuss the development strategy for facility at MidAmerica in 1966. MidAmerica. The Russians believe MidAmerica may be a role model www.maip.com for a new 7,000-acre industrial park planned near Moscow. 2010 © MIDAMERIca INDusTRIal Park MidAMericA industriAl PArk • P.O.BOx 945 • PryOr creek Ok 74362-0945 • 918.825.3500 • www.maiP.com.