Company expands to Mitchell, could bring up to 40 jobs

More positive economic news emerged Thursday for Mitchell when EthosPartners announced a planned expansion into the city that could result in up to 40 new jobs.

EthosPartners does backoffice work for the health-care industry. The Suwanee, Ga., based company already employs 43 people in Plankinton.

In a news release from the Mitchell Area Development Corporation, the company said its Mitchell location will be housed in the former Vantage Point Solutions office in the Palace Mall and will “complement” the Plankinton operation.

“To support our ongoing efforts to provide results-driven solutions to physician practices and health-care systems, we needed to hire a quality workforce and move into available space,” Amanda Schutz, local manager for EthosPartners, said in the news release.

The EthosPartners announcement follows last month’s news that Performance Pet Products plans to start a second shift in Mitchell with eight to 10 new employees, and Enertech, a manufacturer of heating, cooling and refrigeration equipment, plans to expand its Mitchell facility and add 50 to 60 employees.

The impending job growth bodes well for Mitchell’s unemployment rate, which had been higher than 5 per- cent for six straight months until it dropped to 4.9 percent in July. The rate peaked at 6.7 percent in March, which was more than twice the March 2008 unemployment rate of 2.9 percent.

Some local companies are still feeling the negative effects of the economic recession. Trail King Industries President Carol Lowe said Thursday that the company is eliminating five non-manufacturing, “support” positions, including four in Mitchell. That action brings the total number of announced layoffs at local Trail King facilities to 121 since December. The company also has taken other actions in response to the recession, including the closure of a plant in Pennsylvania.

Local and state officials have kept up efforts to promote economic development in spite of the recession. After Vantage Point Solutions moved out of its Palace Mall location and into a new building last year, the Mitchell Area Development Corporation spent $40,000 to buy some of Vantage Point’s furniture, fixtures and equipment and keep it in the mall location. The location was then promoted to potential tenants as a “plug and play” opportunity.

Bryan Hisel, executive director of the Mitchell Area Development Corporation, said EthosPartners signed a $50,000 note for the furniture, fixtures and equipment. That amount will be forgiven if EthosPartners maintains at least 35 full-time positions at the location each year during a five-year period. Hisel said he considers the arrangement an investment in job creation. “We don’t anticipate this company being here only five years,” Hisel said. “We look forward to this company being here for the long term.”

In the news release, Terry Sabers, president of the development corporation, credited the organization’s strategy with helping to lure the company to the Palace Mall location.

“This was a marketing and recruitment strategy we wanted to try in order to recruit a new office industry to Mitchell,” Sabers said. “It is very rewarding to know that plan worked successfully for EthosPartners and Mitchell Development.”

The release said that state officials also helped bring the EthosPartners expansion to fruition. The state assistance was apparently general in nature, a representative of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development said Thursday, because the state has committed no financial resources to the deal thus far.

“We are truly appreciative of the warm reception and seamless business assistance that we have received from the state and local organizations,” Bob Bergstrom, vice president of EthosPartners, said in the news release. “We couldn’t have done it without them.”

EthosPartners works with a variety of hospitals, health systems and physician organizations to provide advice and direction related to strategic, operational and financial challenges, Thursday’s news release said.

The company provides services in four areas of health care: consulting, management services, revenue cycle management and business intelligence.

Hisel said EthosPartners’ Mitchell workforce will be engaged primarily in medical billing and coding. Healthcare organizations around the nation “farm out” some of those operations to EthosPartners, he said.

Tags: news, local, plankinton, ethospartners