Life Star closes, Braun looks to buy assets

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

An official announcement of the closing of a local plant was followed Thursday by news that the assets of the company had been purchased by another Van Wert company.

Lyle Halstead, general manager of Life Star Rescue, officially informed local officials that Life Star’s parent company, Holman Automotive Group, was closing Life Star’s Van Wert operation in August. The company, which repairs and remounts ambulances, employs 29 people.

That announcement was superseded by one from Kim Braun, president/CEO of Braun Industries, stating that Braun and Life Star had reached a tentative agreement calling for Braun to purchase the Life Star’s physical assets, including its building and equipment. The agreement is scheduled to close June 30.

Braun also said in a prepared release that an effort would be made to hire as many of Life Star’s employees as possible.

“We cannot hire everyone, but we do value the synergies of the work performed by both organizations,” Braun said in the release. “We value the workforce, and we want to hire those that we can.”

Braun also talked about the longstanding relationship between her company and Life Star, which was started in 1998 in co-founder Mark Brake’s garage. Life Star became a Braun dealer the next year, as well as performing repair and remount work for the ambulance maker.

Life Star’s original owners, Brake, Jon Ryder and Dave Lengerich, sold the business to New Jersey-based Holman Enterprises eight years ago.

Braun, a third-generation family business currently managed by Braun and her brother, Scott, currently has approximately 200 workers.

Both companies relocated to Van Wert in 2002, with Life Star building a 50,000-square foot facility in Van Wert’s Vision Industrial Park, just north of Braun’s production facility. Both buildings were damaged by an F-4 tornado that leveled several plants in Vision Park in November 2002, but Braun and Life Star rebuilt their facilities and were back in business early in 2003.

Van Wert Economic Development Director Cindy Leis said Thursday city officials and representatives rom the regional Workforce Investment Act Area 8, Van Wert County Department of Job and Family Services and JobsOhio met with both companies to provide assistance in employing dislocated Life Star workers, while also providing incentives for Braun to expand its business.