(2 of 3)
Not every city has a George McLean. Then again, not every city labors under Tupelo's disadvantages. If this former dusty crossroads can go global, locals say, anyplace can. Here's what the city's business and political leaders have learned:
--Cheap labor is available lots of places; what the best employers want is workers who are reasonably priced, skilled and trainable. Holley Performance Products, whose carburetors power NASCAR racing vehicles, discovered Tupelo when the firm sent an executive to buy the machinery and other contents of a factory that had closed. He wound up persuading his bosses to buy the whole plant--equipment, employees and all. In what locals describe as "reverse NAFTA," Holley closed a plant in Senoita, Mexico, and consolidated its operations in Aberdeen, near Tupelo, in 2000. The town offered subsidized rent, tax breaks, worker training at a nearby college and low-interest loans. Best of all, though, Holley found that Tupelo's skilled workers could use more sophisticated tools and processes than the Mexican workers in Senoita to manufacture more efficiently. Says Michael Peters, a Holley vice president: "We found we could get skilled labor, not cheap labor. We operate on lean manufacturing. We were able to reduce our employee head count."
A similar calculus persuaded Sistag Maschinenfabrik, based in Switzerland, to begin manufacturing specialty valves in Tupelo two years ago. That plant now produces a quarter of Sistag's revenue, shipping valves across the U.S. and to Brazil, Canada and Mexico. Hunter Douglas, which makes venetian blinds, and Cooper Tires built big plants in Tupelo--in large part, they say, because their products and processes are relatively complex and require workers who can learn and adapt.
--Investments in education pay off in jobs. While Tupelo and Mississippi lure companies with breaks on various taxes, state law still requires them to pay their full share of taxes for public schools. Starting 30 years ago, Tupelo's efforts to attract small manufacturers helped expand the tax base and enhance the financing of local schools. Today, Tupelo High's modern campus includes a fine-arts museum and a 1,000-seat performing-arts center. About four-fifths of the graduates go on to college, and for the others, vocational training is available as early as the seventh grade. Says superintendent Michael Vinson: "We have to have outstanding public education to educate not only the individual but the potential employee as well."
--Don't just tell prospective employers you want them. Show them. When the Canadian paper company Nexfor Inc. looked to open a fiberboard mill in the southern U.S., economic developers in Tupelo promptly planted 300,000 paper-producing loblolly pine trees--which grow three times as quickly here as in Canada. In 1995, with $4 million in state and local land- and road-improvement grants, Nexfor built a $90 million facility that employs 120. Says Charles Gordon, a company vice president and member of the search party: "Tupelo has one of the best industrial-development machines in rural America."