 Caleris Inc., which offers technical support and other services to a variety of clients throughout the nation, selected Jefferson as the site for its newest support center. Caleris selected Jefferson after an in-depth study of over 15 Iowa communities.
Caleris moved into the former Fareway building on North Chestnut, a block north of the square. The building, which was transferred to Greene County Development Corporation (GCDC) by the city of Jefferson, was renovated to meet Caleris’ specifications. Caleris is leasing the facility from GCDC.
Rick Grewell, president of Caleris, said, “One of the biggest factors that led us to Jefferson was how involved the community is with local economic development. They worked diligently to identify a suitable location that fit our needs and helped us with many other aspects of opening a new business in Jefferson. We also like the quality of work force that is available in the area.”
Caleris started business in Jefferson on February 1, 2005. The company hopes to hire over 90 employees in the Jefferson area in the next several years.
An example of the work done by Caleris is a contract the company has with the Sony Corporation. If someone has bought a Sony CD or DVD drive for his or her computer and has a problem with that drive, Sony provides an 800 number to call to get help with the problem. When the owner calls that 800 number, the call comes to a Caleris employee who has been trained to answer any questions the customer has about the Sony product.
Caleris provides this service to about 35 U.S. and Canadian companies. The firm also employs people in non-technical customer service roles.
Sheldon Ohringer, CEO of Caleris, said, “We employ people with a wide variety of abilities. The attributes we look for in our employees are their communication and people skills. We give our employees all the training they need to handle any of the technical questions they may encounter.”
Ohringer and Grewell, the owners of Caleris, were born and raised in Iowa, and both live in the state. They purchased Caleris at the end of 2003.
Caleris has a home office in Urbandale and operates a support center in Manning. In 2004 the company almost doubled its employment at the Manning facility, to about 75 employees.
The owners started their search for a second facility location in February 2004. Grewell said, “You hear about all the outsourcing to India and other foreign countries. We knew that we wanted to keep our expansion in Iowa. We feel that rural Iowa is the best place in the world to operate these support centers. With the education level, work ethic and Midwestern values in rural Iowa, our employees offer our customers a higher quality of service than anywhere else in the world.”
Ohringer and Grewell contacted Allen Williams at the Iowa Department of Economic Development to help develop a list of communities for their next site. They researched data and drove through many of those communities, and narrowed their list down to three candidates. Bruce Hansen of the Iowa Area Development Group then assisted them to arrange meetings with community leaders on the final list.
Ohringer said, “When we started working with Jim Daubendiek of Jefferson Telephone Company, Ray Forsythe of Midwest Partnership and Rick Morain of Greene County Development Corporation, we realized the confidence these people had in Jefferson and the commitment to economic development in the community. This is similar to the community involvement we have in our successful Manning facility and we are looking forward to the same level of involvement in Jefferson.”
GCDC president Tom Polking said, “The cooperation between the public and private sectors here resulted in Caleris choosing our community. With this type of cooperation, we feel there will be similar announcements in Jefferson.”
Morain, GCDC’s executive director, called the successful effort to locate the Caleris facility in Jefferson “truly a team victory.”
“Many, many people and organizations came together in this effort,” Morain said. “It’s a tribute to the importance that Greene county places on economic development here, and to the eagerness to help with time and resources that so many have demonstrated on this project. GCDC receives tremendous support from the city, the county, GCDC members, Iowa Central Community College, and other groups and individuals, and we’re very grateful. We look forward to helping Caleris grow in Greene county.”
|
