ThisWeek CW 11/06/2014

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2014/11/03/columbus-2020-trip-haire-touts-central-ohio-to-overseas-market.html

Canal Winchester officials are hoping a global outreach effort will bring greater international interest to the area, resulting in more investment in the community and jobs for residents.

City Development Director Lucas Haire returned recently from a business trip to Japan with the regional economic development group, Columbus 2020.

Haire is a board member of the Mid-Ohio Development Exchange (MODE) and a member of the Fairfield 33 Development Alliance, both of which focus on economic development in and around central Ohio and provided the funding for his trip.

The Oct. 18-25 trip involved five full days of meetings, he said, starting around 7:30 a.m. and running through the evening.

Also traveling to Osaka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Tokyo and surrounding areas were Columbus 2020 staff members Alex Kaneko, Matt McCollister and Deb Scherer.

“Columbus 2020 travels to Japan at least two times a year to work on business development and meet with the corporate headquarters of Japanese-owned businesses that already have a presence in our region,” Haire said.

“I asked to join them on a trip, since we are seeing more interest from internationally owned manufacturing companies looking to invest here.

“Canal Winchester has industrial property available that I believe could be a good fit for these manufacturers.”

According to Haire, two of the city’s largest employers, TS Trim Industries and Nifco, are both Japanese-owned. One of the meetings the team attended was with the parent company of TS Trim, where they were able to thank their corporate officials for their investment in Canal Winchester and update them on other local opportunities.

“We had 18 meetings during the five full days we were in Japan, and 17 of the meetings were with companies that have sales in the United States and are considering opening their first operations here or expanding their presence and adding new facilities,” Haire said.

“Many of these companies were in the automotive supply industry, which Canal Winchester has strength in, with three of our five largest employers in that industry.”

The meetings were very productive, Haire said, explaining that the companies were very receptive to the information the team provided about opportunities in central Ohio.

“The Columbus region is specifically a great location for Japanese-owned businesses because we have nearly 150 Japanese firms located in the region, and more than 4,000 Japanese nationals calling the Columbus area home,” Haire said.

“The quality of the meetings that we had were great, and this can be attributed to the business intelligence produced by Columbus 2020 and their consultants. International business development is definitely something that the city should be involved at the regional level.”

Haire said his trip “has better prepared me to respond to leads for international projects that we receive, and to better relate to the Japanese businesses that we already have in the city.”