Minnesota company plans to hire 20-30 people within 60 days

Mar 2, 2010 — Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier

Tim Jamison

Mar. 2, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- WATERLOO -- A Minnesota-based company is planning to reopen the former Eagle Ottawa tannery.

Twin City Tanning Co., of South St. Paul, Minn., announced Monday its plans to start operations at the plant -- closed since November 2008 -- in Waterloo's northeast industrial area.

"We plan to start production within the next 60 days," said Bob Hawley, general manager of Twin City Tanning, in a news release. "The Waterloo community has been very supportive of our efforts to re-open the plant."

Hawley said the company will begin hiring and training employees for the plant in the next 30 days with tentative plans to commence limited operations in late March or early April.

Eagle Ottawa operated the tannery at 4455 Remington Road for 20 years before shutting it down and moving the automotive leather work to Mexico. The plant's closure affected more than 100 workers mostly represented by United Paperworkers.

City zoning staff in late 2009 began the process of adding the tannery to the industrial area's tax increment financing district, which would allow the city to offer incentives to attract a new tenant.

Twin City Tanning officials said they initially plan to hire a work force of 20 to 30 full-time employees as the firm ramps up production slowly and builds additional capacity as demand for the product increases. Long-term employment levels at the Waterloo site will depend on the growth of the business.

"We intend to focus our Waterloo business growth on servicing a diverse customer base," Hawley said. "Our long-term viability dictates that we work with all segments of the leather industry."

Hiring for the facility is being coordinated through the Iowa Workforce Development center in Waterloo. Interested applicants should contact Iowa Workforce for employment information. The newly hired employees will be trained at Twin City Tanning's Minnesota facility.

Twin City Tanning is associated with Twin City Hide Inc., a South St. Paul family owned and operated cattle hide processing company incorporated in 1919. That company processes about 30,000 cattle hides each week, according to the company Web site, while Twin City Tanning has the capacity to wet blue about 4,000 hides per day.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0150-42501998