Meeting the challenge: how three Batesville-area companies are dealing with a slowing economy.

• Author: Mayer, Kathy
• Position: Regional Report: Southeast; Focus

When the economy slowed, the task of sustaining operations and revenues challenged many a Hoosier industry. Three in southeastern Indiana that faced down the threat offer survive-and-thrive lessons for other businesses around the state.

The smallest--testing solution and chemical supplier Red Bird Service, employing 17 in Osgood-- expanded its market to Canada. Batesville Tool and Die, which has never had a layoff in 24 years and employs about 430, embraced efficiency like it never had before. And Hillenbrand Industries--a giant in the health-care-equipment and funeral-services industries and virtually assured of steady business because of the predictability of those markets--decided the time was right to go after double-digit increases in revenue, earnings and shareholder value.

The common theme in their diverse races: setting their goal and going after it with focus and vigor.

Now in its 25th year, Red Bird Service "didn't look good for the future" just a year ago, reports Gene Feith, one of three owners of the company that supplies quality control testing solutions and chemicals across the U.S. "Our loss was because of September 11. It had been a reasonable year up until that point, then people just stopped by buying."

He headed to the Ripley County Economic Development Corp., an organization he'd helped launch, for help. There he was advised, if you need more sales, increase your sales territory. That was in March. By June, he was sending his first shipment to Canada.

"I give the local economic-development office a lot of credit," Feith says. "I wouldn't have thought about Canada myself." He also worked closely with the Indiana Department of Commerce, which put him in touch with the right people in Canada. "They made things very easy."

Today, Feith believes that the Canadian market could ultimately increase his business by 50 percent. And he's considering expanding his sales territory to Mexico, too, in another year or so.

While the tool-and-die industry overall experienced 10 percent to 15 percent downturns in the last year, Batesville Tool and Die posted a sales growth of about 2 percent, reports president Jody Fledderman. As for costs, the business achieved about a 12 percent increase in efficiencies. "We started using 'lean manufacturing' concepts in our production system for doing a lot of our assembly operations. We reduced run sizes to cut inventory, for example," he says.

Batesville Tool and Die also achieved savings by moving...