A small manufacturer in Bloomington faces many pressures. Joe Diemer has owned Midwest Molding Solutions for a quarter century.
His firm on Gill Street makes everything from plastic parts for Rivian to zip ties for cattle ankles to identify their diet and condition.
In all, Midwest Molding Solutions has about 50 customers. President Trump's proposed tariffs could affect Midwest Molding because parts for his injection molding machines — costing more than $250,000 each — come from China.
"They build a lot of our tooling. In that sense, the tariffs will probably hurt the cost of tooling," said Diemer.
On the flip side, Diemer said the tariffs could make pricing for his products more competitive than those made overseas.
“If stuff starts sourcing more in the U.S.A. that will help us,” said Diemer. “I don’t know. In the overall scheme of things, it could be a net positive for us.”
Tax policy
A Central Illinois congressman said reviving expiring Trump administration tax cuts is important to small businesses like Midwest Molding.
Republican U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood said during a McLean County Chamber of Commerce-sponsored visit to the firm that small businesses need help with writing off such big capital investments.
"We talked about 100% bonus depreciation. He's an S-Corp, so we talked about the 20% pass through," said LaHood.
The pass-through allows some business owners to deduct up to 20% of their net business income from their taxes.
“You have to have a good tax system that allows them to have higher wages and hire more people,” said LaHood, adding it's also important to bring down energy costs for small businesses and to control inflation.
Diemer said it's also difficult to find skilled workers.
“A lot of the assembly stuff, that’s easy stuff to train. Now, the processing of the machine itself and the programming, that’s a lot longer process and that’s where it’s tough to find skilled resources,” said Diemer. "We can train internally, but really you could train for two years and there is still stuff you haven’t experienced. It takes a while.”
People who can be processors, technical resources, and quality engineers are always on his wish list.
“Particularly in Central Illinois. You have to almost lure them here. It’s almost got to be money these days,” said Diemer. “Then you are competing against companies that are a lot bigger and have greater benefits that a small company can’t afford.”
In assisting businesses like Midwest Molding Solutions find those skilled workers, Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council Director Patrick Hoban said a key is adquate workforce housing, of which the community has a pronounced deficit.
“We are hearing that the turnover rate is higher for anyone that has to commute 45 minutes or more. And those prices are going to go up within that 45-mile labor shed as demand increases. So, to get more workers, we need more residents. To get more residents, we need more affordable housing,” said Hoban.
Diemer has about 25 workers.
He said he recruits where he can, but hasn’t had a lot of luck. He also has used a training firm, and is exploring a partnership with Heartland Community College.
