Grow Wabash County promotes business community on the global stage

Wabash County, IN – Wabash County was in the global spotlight this summer when members of the Grow Wabash County team, attended the Hannover Messe trade show in Hanover, Germany as well as the Select USA trade show in Washington, DC.

During their first trip, which took them to Germany and Italy, Wabash Mayor Scott Long, Keith Gillenwater and Tenille Zartman, held meetings with various European companies looking to expand and/or relocate their operations to the United States. 

“As Mayor, I cannot sit back and wait for a company to ‘knock’ on Wabash’s door to locate here,” Wabash Mayor Scott Long said.  “I travelled to Hannover Messe to make introductions to various companies from throughout Europe.  The meetings that we held with representatives of these companies were productive, and this is the first step in attracting Foreign Direct Investment into Wabash and Wabash County.  I anticipate more trips such as this will occur in the future to keep the lines of communication open with companies seeking to invest in the United States.”

In addition to meeting with multiple companies during the trade show, the group also traveled to Italy to meet with the leadership team at Hello Nature, a company which recently announced its plans to build a 300,000 square-foot facility in Wabash County to house their BioNutrients operation, which was the result of Hello Nature’s partnership with MPS Egg Farms. 

Shortly after their return from Europe, Gillenwater and Zartman represented Wabash County at the Select USA trade show in Washington DC where they again met with companies looking to locate and/or expand into the United States, many eager to learn about what Wabash County had to offer them and their businesses.  

The meetings held by the team throughout these two trips, as well as meetings taking place here in Wabash County because of those visits, are all part of a robust foreign direct investment (FDI) strategy that was developed  as a result of the tremendous support Grow Wabash County received through their “Growth Starts Here” capital campaign. 
In collaboration with Navigator Consulting and the Trans-Atlantic Business and Investment Council, the FDI strategy worked to focus Wabash County’s message to a variety of international audiences in an effort to spark further growth and business development in the community, and laid out a roadmap for how to successfully implement the goals of increasing FDI activity in Wabash County.  

“It’s an honor to represent our community and all of the many benefits of doing business in Wabash County,” said Keith Gillenwater, President & CEO of Grow Wabash County.  “In the last several weeks, we’ve conducted dozens of individual company meetings, visited factories across Europe, met with numerous site location consultants, and even attended a reception at the residence of the Ambassador of Japan where we connected with several Japanese businesses looking to locate in the US.  Coupled with the ongoing efforts to bring businesses from all over the to Wabash County, we are applying a full-court press for new opportunities right here in our community.”   

Moving forward Grow Wabash County looks forward to connecting with even more companies, domestic and abroad to show the business world that Wabash County is the ideal setting for business development, growth and prosperity.