State aids construction with $6 million in loans

By Paula Schleis
Beacon Journal business writer
Published on Wednesday, Apr 09, 2008

TechniGraphics Inc. of Wooster will construct a $6.2 million building on its campus and create 150 jobs in digital mapping and computer-assisted design over the next three years.

Co-owner Mary Vaidya and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher made the announcement before some 60 local business and community leaders, who gathered to cheer Wayne County's latest economic development coup.

TechniGraphics has a dozen offices around the world, but the new jobs will be added here, thanks to a state and city incentive package.

Ohio will give Techni-Graphics $6 million in fixed low-interest loans, and Wooster has approved a 75 percent tax abatement for 10 years.

Groundbreaking for the 30,000-square-foot building — the second structure on a 60-acre spread where Techni-Graphics built its headquarters
three years ago — could begin this month, with completion expected by the start of 2009.

The company employs 230 in Wooster and another 270 in offices from California to India.

Fisher said TechniGraphics is an example of the entrepreneurship that has made Wayne County the Midwest's top 'micropolitan' economy for capital projects, as identified by Site Selection magazine this year.

Mary and her husband, Dee Vaidya, grew TechniGraphics from a business they started at their kitchen table to 'one of the premier businesses, not just in Wayne County but in the state of Ohio,' Fisher said.

The initial growth of TechniGraphics, where revenue has gone from less than $5 million in 2002 to about $45 million in 2007, came from federal contracts for digital mapping services.

Digital mapping is the process of taking satellite images and tracing all of their features — roads, buildings, even vegetation — into a computerized database. Think MapQuest, Google World and automobile GPS navigation systems.

Two years ago, the company diversified into computer-assisted design, or 'CAD,' where ideas are put into three-dimensional graphics so products can be visualized, tweaked and tested before leaving the computer screen. Recent customers include Boeing, Airbus, Chrysler, Toyota and Honda.

The new facility and the jobs created by it will be in both areas, Mary Vaidya said.

Fisher said TechniGraphics is the kind of knowledge-based company that Ohio needs to nurture.

'We may never be able to compete with India or China on the basis of cost,' Fisher said, referring to the move of many American manufacturers to emerging economies with cheaper production labor.

'But we will always compete and win on the basis of talent, work ethic, productivity, innovation and entrepreneurship, and today we celebrate one of those victories.'

Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com.

TechniGraphics Inc. of Wooster will construct a $6.2 million building on its campus and create 150 jobs in digital mapping and computer-assisted design over the next three years.

Co-owner Mary Vaidya and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher made the announcement before some 60 local business and community leaders, who gathered to cheer Wayne County's latest economic development coup.

TechniGraphics has a dozen offices around the world, but the new jobs will be added here, thanks to a state and city incentive package.

Ohio will give Techni-Graphics $6 million in fixed low-interest loans, and Wooster has approved a 75 percent tax abatement for 10 years.

Groundbreaking for the 30,000-square-foot building — the second structure on a 60-acre spread where Techni-Graphics built its headquarters
three years ago — could begin this month, with completion expected by the start of 2009.

The company employs 230 in Wooster and another 270 in offices from California to India.

Fisher said TechniGraphics is an example of the entrepreneurship that has made Wayne County the Midwest's top 'micropolitan' economy for capital projects, as identified by Site Selection magazine this year.

Mary and her husband, Dee Vaidya, grew TechniGraphics from a business they started at their kitchen table to 'one of the premier businesses, not just in Wayne County but in the state of Ohio,' Fisher said.

The initial growth of TechniGraphics, where revenue has gone from less than $5 million in 2002 to about $45 million in 2007, came from federal contracts for digital mapping services.

Digital mapping is the process of taking satellite images and tracing all of their features — roads, buildings, even vegetation — into a computerized database. Think MapQuest, Google World and automobile GPS navigation systems.

Two years ago, the company diversified into computer-assisted design, or 'CAD,' where ideas are put into three-dimensional graphics so products can be visualized, tweaked and tested before leaving the computer screen. Recent customers include Boeing, Airbus, Chrysler, Toyota and Honda.

The new facility and the jobs created by it will be in both areas, Mary Vaidya said.

Fisher said TechniGraphics is the kind of knowledge-based company that Ohio needs to nurture.

'We may never be able to compete with India or China on the basis of cost,' Fisher said, referring to the move of many American manufacturers to emerging economies with cheaper production labor.

'But we will always compete and win on the basis of talent, work ethic, productivity, innovation and entrepreneurship, and today we celebrate one of those victories.'

Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com.