Much has been made of the some 500 jobs lost in this small Wisconsin border town. We’ve read about the personal losses and the anticipated impact on city’s merchants. But these losses aside, the true impact of such a closing is staggering.
Polaris relies on local vendors for almost all of its production needs: metals, lubricants, welding supplies, office supplies, packaging, and maintenance.
Polaris purchases significant quantities of metal from several metal fabricating centers in the Twin Cities totaling millions of dollars. Now Polaris may continue its vendor contracts with the parent companies of these service centers but it is unlikely that our Twin City plants and their workers will continue to process and ship metal to them from Minnesota.
These are huge losses to these companies, huge losses in jobs dealing in the logistics of servicing Polaris’ metal needs. From warehousing, to handling, to flame cutting, to laser fabricating, to transportation: all these jobs and revenues will be moving elsewhere. The jobs of hundreds more will be impacted here alone.
Polaris outsources locally, within several hundred miles of their Osceola plant, many of the components used in manufacturing the ATVs, snowmobiles, and motorcycles. Wire forming seat latches, frame bending, steering assemblies, and countless other parts are actually produced by other manufacturers for them.
These subcontractors are separate buyers of metal, tools, plating and heat treating. All of their vendors are impacted by the potential loss of Polaris business.
Now Polaris had stated that they may continue partnerships with some of these companies and thus lessen the economic impact their move to Mexico will have on the entire Twin Cities but in reality these “partnerships” will be hard to sustain in the long-term from such a distance of miles.
The plant closing in Osceola Wisconsin will reach deep into the pockets of many suppliers and manufacturers throughout the Twin Cities but little has been written about it and even less has been contemplated.
The irony of it all is that Kawasaki continues to expand its production facilities in Lincoln Nebraska and Maryville Missouri to manufacture the same basic product lines. But apparently their “fastest growing market” isn’t the southwest. Or maybe the three-hundred miles from Minnesota to Maryville makes all the difference in profitability.
Polaris just won a big federal contract to supply the military with a modified ATV. The question arises: just where is this contract being fulfilled…in Mexico?
So who is asking to the tough questions? Are we afraid they’ll pack up their Medina corporate headquarters and leave town? Where are the politicians that were all over Northwest and Delta? These are important jobs and sustaining revenue streams our economy will be losing.
Where are our voices?
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