MCED recently had the privilege to present Crawford Industries with the Montgomery County Economic Development “Bright Star Award” for outstanding corporate citizenship.

Founded by Ken Crawford in 1959, the company was one of the first to manufacture plastic three ring binders with the capability to custom print on the plastic cover. Sounds simple enough until you find out that traditional inks will stick to polyethylene for about 5 minutes, after which they just fall right off. This problem became an opportunity and the birth of another Crawfordsville company, Norcote. It is safe to say that Crawford industries faced and conquered many challenges over the years as a leader in quality plastic sheet manufacture, information packaging and printing

Crawford was purchased in 1999 by Horizon Five Star Companies who have not only maintained but have enhanced the quality products the company is know for. Earl Guinter, Marketing Director says, “The company produces many kinds of custom packaging products for such companies as Finish Line, Target and Disney, just to name a few”.

A few years ago the company bought another production facility in Georgia that increased their ability to manufacture additional plastic sheet. They have also invested in a high tech offset printing press that is capable of printing photo quality images directly on plastic and direct from a digital source. This is quite a leap in technology from just a few years ago, but just the kinds of investments that are important to keeping manufacturing in Crawfordsville.

The company recently announced they will be moving their corporate headquarters from Naperville, IL to Crawfordsville and their half a million dollar construction project is under way.

Not only are they important for their financial investments in our community, they have also stepped up to the plate in support the MCED School to Career Committee. They have hosted a company tour of our area high school technical and vocational teachers and are sponsoring internships at the company in collaboration with Crawfordsville High School’s progressive “High Performance Manufacturing” class.

These are challenging times for manufacturers with the pressure of increasing global competition. For Indiana to stay competitive we will need companies like Crawford to invest in new technologies and workforce training. We will also need to be supportive as a community and provide any assistance we can to Crawford as they expand their business here.

They are a great example of why it is important to embrace the new ideas of this generation and provide a platform where our emerging entrepreneurs can launch companies and products that will provide as much economic value as Crawford Industries has over the years. David Sullivan and Kendall Faulstich, managing directors, say they are pleased with our central location and find the community supportive.

MCED is proud to recognize Crawford Industries
with our “Bright Star award for Outstanding Corporate Citizenship”
and look forward to another 40 years with Sommer Metalcraft.