Cool Machines gets equipment loan

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

A “gypsy” business that has finally purchased a home plant in Van Wert now has some extra cash to purchase “furnishings” for the plant.

Cool Machines owners Dave Krendl and Andy Schulte signed papers on Thursday for a revolving loan totaling $38,000 that will be used to help purchase an overhead crane for the company’s new digs in the former Van Wert Innovation Center building on Fox Road. Krendl said the cost of a crane would likely be somewhere between $45,000 and $55,000.

The business, which was first started in 2004 in New Haven, Ind., has been in Van Wert since 2006 in rented space on Industrial Drive, but Krendl has said the move to the Fox Road facility would provide 10,000 square feet of additional space and also allowing the company to expand its product line.

Cool Machines designs and manufactures a number of products, from machines that blow insulation into buildings to special effects machines (artificial snowmakers) for filmmakers.

Krendl said buying a building, rather than leasing one, would be a big factor in the growth of Cool Machines, adding that he and Schulte felt like “gypsies” while they were moving from facility to facility. “It’s just difficult to keep making improvements to a building you don’t own,” he said. Schulte said having its own building will allow Cool Machines to modify the building to better fit the company’s specialized needs, while also adding on as the business grows.

Buying the overhead crane was an important addition to Cool Machines, Krendl said, and was one of the criteria he and Schulte looked at when seeking to purchase a building. “We needed a building with a high enough ceiling,” he noted.

The overhead crane, which the company also had at its old site in the former Varco-Pruden building, allows workers to move portions of the company’s, um, cool machines, from place to place within the new facility. That makes the manufacturing process less labor-intensive — which keeps manpower needs down — while also speeding up the time needed to make its products.

Meanwhile, Krendl said he and Schulte are also working on improving the appearance of their new building, in preparation for a planned open house sometime in October. The plant is expected to be fully operational by sometime in September.

“We hope our business will be a nice looking addition to that side of town,” Krendl said.

The Community Improvement Corporation (CIC), the former owner of the Van Wert Innovation Center building, is also pleased with Cool Machines’ purchase of the facility, since it allows the CIC to purchase a small building — or buildings — to continue its work in providing low-cost facilities for start-up companies in the Van Wert County community.

“One of the problems we’ve had was the size of the building was more than we could fill,” Jon Rhoades, CIC president, said recently.