Genesis Plastics Welding, a medical equipment manufacturer in Fortville, is in the final year of a tax abatement it received for an expansion it completed about a decade ago.
Mitchell Kirk | Daily Reporter
FORTVILLE — Officials are allowing three Fortville businesses’ tax breaks to continue for building improvements and equipment additions they’ve made.
One of the companies continues to lack the additional jobs its expansion was anticipated to create. Its leader and a town official note the incentive is nearly over, however, and point to other strides the business has been making.
The tax abatements are for Genesis Plastics Welding, Thursday Pools, and Taxman Brewing Co., and gradually phase in taxes for certain real estate and equipment over the course of 10 years.
When the companies first sought the abatements, they reported their investments in the improvements and estimates on assessed value along with how staffing and wages would grow. The Fortville Town Council reviews that information annually before determining whether to continue granting the breaks.
Genesis Plastics Welding is in the final year of the abatement it received for the expansion it completed that took its facility at 720 E. Broadway St. from 15,000 square feet to 42,000.
The company, which makes medical equipment, reported having 65 employees when it got the abatement. While the expansion was anticipated to add jobs, the business now has 54, according to paperwork filed with the town of Fortville.
President and CEO Thomas Ryder told town council members earlier this week that Genesis Plastics Welding continues to recover since 2015 when it lost a significant amount of business. He added that the company had an OK year in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, but was mired in 2021 by supply chain issues that plagued and continue to plague much of the economy.
The final year of the abatement will give the company a tax savings of about $4,200, Ryder said.
Since 2012, the company has made over $4.4 million in plant and equipment investments, he also said, adding all profits get reinvested back into the business.
Ryder pointed out that the company pays full taxes on its real property outside of the expansion and on equipment.
The company is looking to invest $750,000 to $1 million to expand its clean room manufacturing operations, he continued.
“My hope is to do that at the end of the year as we come out of the supply chain rut that we’ve been in,” he said.
Genesis Plastics Welding increased production wages by over 22% over the past 12 months, according to Ryder, and only laid off five employees in 2021 despite substantial financial losses.
“We’re trying to hire better personnel and pay better rates today to continue that trend outward,” Ryder said.
He said wages for the 54 positions that have been retained since the abatement started in 2012 have increased by nearly 95%.
“Everybody’s been elevated,” he said. “We’ve been hiring higher-level technicians and engineers for the clean room and medical device business.”
It all amounted to a compelling argument for town council president Fritz Fentz to vote for allowing the abatement to continue.
“This is the last year, and they’ve been a good partner in the community,” Fentz said.
The council unanimously found the company in substantial compliance for its abatement, as they also did for Thursday Pools and Taxman Brewing Co.
Thursday Pools, 840 Commerce Parkway, has four tax abatements — two from 2014 and 2018, respectively, for new molds and equipment to make its one-piece fiberglass swimming pools, and ones for building additions from those same years.
Taxman Brewing Co. got its abatement for the restaurant it opened at 29 S. Main St. in 2017.
