State business association honors Genie

Work continues in a room at Genie Industries' Moses Lake location Tuesday morning behind the company's recent award from the Association of Washington Business as Large Manufacturer of the Year. Photo by Matthew Weaver/Columbia Basin Herald

by Matthew Weaver<br>Herald Senior Staff Writer
| February 29, 2008 8:00 PM

Company named Large Manufacturer of the Year

MOSES LAKE -Grant County's largest nongovernmental and nonschool employer has been honored by the Association of Washington Business.

Genie Industries was named Large Manufacturer of the Year by the association Feb. 6.

"I think it's a great recognition that there's been an awful lot of hard work put into Grant County to grow Genie into the company it's become," said Mike Jewell, Genie Industries Director of Moses Lake Operations. "A recognition like this for our employees obviously is a very big boost in the arm."

Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Debbie Doran-Martinez said the chamber received the information about the award and chose to nominate Genie.

"Because of their excellence in the community, the community support, the fact they're one of our largest employers," Doran-Martinez explained. "They definitely are helping our economy by keeping people employed."

Jewell believes the value of the award will become more apparent as time goes on.

"It's a pretty new award, so I'm not sure if the marketing group will utilize this tool, but my assumption would be that they would," he said. "It's not just that we make 'stuff,' we make stuff responsibly and adding to the economy and an excellent work force, I think that's a tool that is very useful."

Genie Materials Manager Rhonda Severance agreed with Jewell the award is recognition of an accumulation of hard work on the parts of Grant County and the company.

"For the marketplace, it's a tangible acknowledgment of all those efforts," she said. "Our customer base is very interested in a company's ability to grow. So when you have a county that is very interested in providing an opportunity for that type of growth, our customers reap the benefit of that. Our units are very in demand in the marketplace, and our customers are always looking for increased production. We obviously have the opportunity to grow a lot here in Grant County."

Growth for the company has been very dramatic, Jewell and Severance said.

"When you look at the year-over-year growth, it's been tremendous," Severance said. "You can look at many data points, but you don't really have to look further than the employee count. A few short years ago, we had fewer than 100 people and today we're sitting at 850 team members, and we're still growing."

Jewell said suppliers are moving into the area, which further helps the economy, and the company is experiencing additional growth from new product launches under way and the relocation of some existing products to the Moses Lake location.

"Simply because we have the space, the height, and the facility to build the larger units," he said. "We anticipate continued growth for the foreseeable future. We will have to add more employees to absorb the growth. I'm a little reluctant to say how many or when."

Genie has been in Moses Lake since 1999.