Brush plant to locate in Moses Lake

MOSES LAKE — A long-time Seattle-based company is giving the area the exact opposite of the brush-off.

Richards Brush, LLC, announced Wednesday morning at a Grant County Economic Development Council board of directors meeting that they will be opening a manufacturing plant in Moses Lake this fall.

The company, established in 1904, has a broad line of products for industrial, commercial and home use, managing member Jim Carroll told those in attendance. Products include rotary brushes for agricultural and food processors, custom industrial brushes and staple catalog items.

Carroll said that the company was looking for a new location due to high overall costs in Seattle, including land, power, taxes and labor, as well as more space to support a product the company plans to grow nationally with in 2006, "Neat Feet."

Carroll said "Neat Feet" is the project that brought the company to Grant County. An existing product was already in place when he purchased the company, was "handmade, but well-made," and the number-one selling item in the company by a wide margin.

"It sold well, it had sold well for years, it continued to sell well and my only directions to the employees after I bought the business was that I never want to be out of these," Richards said.

An industrial designer worked with Carroll to redesign the product into one that was improved so that the company could make it better and for less, he said.

"The problem is the product's selling too well," he said, noting that meetings with distributors have met with early success. But one production run of "Neat Feet" requires 25 pallets of raw materials, in progress, or finished goods, and the company's present Seattle operation hardly has room for that number, Carroll said. "That's the catalyst right there that is driving this whole project. It's not our only product, but it is a rocket ship right now."

A search for space in Seattle was expanded to Pierce and King County, and then Carroll, realizing the need to keep a will call center in Seattle, decided that manufacturing and distribution could be located elsewhere. Carroll said Richards Brush administration will also remain in Seattle, but that could change in the future.

Carroll responded to an advertisement in the Seattle Times placed by a real estate agent for the Port of Ephrata, which was advertising a program that did not actually exist. Then-Port manager Barbara Deycous referred Carroll to GCEDC executive director Terry Brewer.

"I guess my message to you is that advertising works, in this case by happenstance," Carroll said.

Carroll began telephone conversations with Brewer in December, and flew to Moses Lake in his own plane in February to look at a building owned by GCEDC member Dale Walker. While the relocation was still in a conversation stage, Brewer updated the GCEDC and community on progress with the project by referring to it by the code name SPARKLE.

An agreement has been finalized to purchase the property, and Carroll cited the proximity of the building, located at 13624 N. Frontage Road, to Interstate-90, the lower costs of power and the availability of labor as factors in the decision to locate in Moses Lake.

Richards Brush plans to expand its marketing beyond the Puget Sound area to a national level, Carroll told GCEDC board members. Locally, hopes are to expand channels of distribution into Ace Hardware, Home Depot, Murdoch's and Basin Feed and Supply, as well as into commercial industrial companies like Basic American Foods, J.R. Simplot, Lamb-Weston and Columbia Potato.

Improvements will be made on the Moses Lake building through Nov. 1, and Carroll anticipates the arrival of state-of-the-art equipment in mid- to late October, with employees on the ground in mid-October. He said that he expects production to begin two days after the equipment arrives.

Sixty percent of Richards Brush business is done as manufacturing, and 40 percent as a distributor, but Carroll said that that could change with the speed of the new machinery and many items may be made in house.

Carroll estimated that at least 20 new jobs will be added over the next two years at the manufacturing company from the local workforce, and a "world class" operations manager is being recruited from a competing company and a "master" brush maker is being relocated to Moses Lake in a training role.

Likening the Seattle business environment to "running the 100-yard dash while someone is hitting you in the kneecaps with a hammer," Carroll said that he feels the company is welcome in Moses Lake.

"We do feel that you embrace, not just the businesses you have, but the businesses you want," he told members. "We want to become an important part of your economy and a good neighbor to the best of our ability."