Skylift Inc. in Lorain hosts 'Manufacturing Month' kickoff

LORAIN — The Lorain County Chamber of Commerce and Lorain County Growth Partnership, among other business officials, kicked off "Manufacturing Month" in the county Thursday with a visit to Skylift Inc. on Leavitt Road in Lorain. Skylift, which was founded in 2000, manufactures machinery used to dig holes and lift light poles and traffic signals for installation. It is one of only three U.S.-based manufacturers for such machines, "and ours is by far the best," owner Nicholas Jarmoszuk said. A doctor of gastroenterology before getting into the machinery manufacturing business, he said he thought up the name Easter Sunday 2000: "We make lifts and the sky's the limit." He said he wanted to focus more on the "human" side of things while others focused on the money and business side. As a "family-run" company, it focuses on "family values." "I have 85 to 90 families I'm responsible for," Jarmoszuk said. When COVID-19 first hit Lorain County, employees were given two weeks off with pay, Skylift President Mike Naughton said. When they came back to work and officials realized they didn't want to risk exposing employees to the coronavirus by having them leave for lunch, the company ordered packed lunches and bottled water for them for six weeks, Naughton said. The company's priorities are safety and people, he said. "The dollars will just come," Naughton said, with the company seeing record sales, inventory promised through the entire coming year and higher sales and more business expected through 2023. Skylift currently is hiring and offers profit sharing, a 401(k) program and "easy" bonuses focused on meeting work safety, product quality and customer satisfaction goals, as well as production milestones, officials said. If workers hit all those marks, they can take home from six to eight weeks of additional pay each year, which the company pays out monthly, Jarmoszuk said. "We want people to come here and stay their whole career," he said. The company also does much of its business in Ohio: 56 percent of its vendors are located in the Buckeye State, 26 percent of them in Northeast Ohio and 11 percent in the city of Lorain. Skylift "only buys American steel," Jarmoszuk said. "We try to spend all the dollars here we can," he said. The company also is expanding its electric machinery offerings, officials said. And, starting Thursday, "all our machines will say 'Proudly Made in Lorain,'" Jarmoszuk announced to the crowd. County Commissioner David Moore presented Skylift with a proclamation naming Oct. 7 "Manufacturing Day in Lorain County" that he and fellow Commissioners Michelle Hung and Matt Lundy issued Wednesday. The county's Community Development Department and the Lorain County Port Authority are available "to get you access to money," he said. Commissioners on Wednesday approved a District Market Development Grant worth $23,468 to Skylift "for recycled content steel beams and plates to be used in the buildout of their expansion for their facility." Moore joked that Jarmoszuk had asked him "for $1.5 million," but "$23,000 is better than nothing." Joking aside, public money is available for private companies to expand, Moore said. "County government is running properly and getting things done for you," he said. By 2030, it is estimated that 80 percent of the baby boomer generation will have left the workforce, Lorain County Development Director Rob Duncan told commissioners Wednesday, and training the next generation of manufacturing workers through Lorain County Community College and Lorain County JVS is important. LCCC President Marcia Ballinger also announced the college's second of two bachelor's degree in applied sciences at Thursday's event. U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, who attended Thursday's event, said Ohio gave the world Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers — who then went on to make other states famous for their inventions. "Where were we?" she asked rhetorically. Now, Lorain County Community College is busy educating the next generation of manufacturing workers to compete with China on the global stage, Kaptur said, adding that she wished Toledo had a community college as respected as Lorain County does. "We have to help companies compete" in an unfair world, Kaptur said. "Manufacturing is fundamental to the strength of the nation." Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on Twitter.