Up in smoke: goes the Rust Belt image with the likes of Logansport kitchen exhaust-system manufacturer.

• Author: Mayer, Kathy
• Position: LDI Manufacturing Company Inc.

UP IN SMOKE

Goes the Rust Belt image with the likes of a Logansport kitchen exhaust-system manufacturer.

When you think of Logansport, you may think of a rusting railroad town. When you think of kitchen exhaust systems, you likely think of a stove hood with a fan. Think again.

Logansport and its industries are working hard to overcome that rusting-town stigma. A good example is LDI Manufacturing Co., Inc. The company produces kitchen exhaust systems that redefine the "stove hood with a fan" as a high-tech, multifeatured, custom piece of commercial equipment. An exhaust system sells for between $500 and $15,000, depending on the facility. If a heating and air-conditioning system is included, it can be another $10,000 to $30,000.

Indiana is one of the last places LDI is getting its well-deserved recognition. As an innovative manufacturer serving an international market, the company has been featured in The New York Times and on NBC's "Today Show."

For the Logansport Economic Development Foundation, LDI is a case in point. "We're particularly proud of LDI because it was the first project we worked on," explains LEDF Director David Yount. "We told Logansport we were going to work to help existing companies as well as attract new business, and with LDI we `put our money where our mouth was,'" Yount says. An LEDF loan helped fund the company's 1985 expansion, which in turn precipitated other significant changes at the private company that had operated much the same way for nearly 40 years.

The changes came under the direction of LDI President and CEO Richard Swennumson. "In 1946, LDI was kind of a jack-of-all-trades," Swennumson says. "The company was a distributor of furnace and residential products. The word `manufacturing' was added to the company's name to reflect the addition of our own designs."

Swennumson and his wife Mary Anna, who spent her girlhood in Logansport, bought the interests of Robert Masters and Byron Simpson, two of the company's three founders. Co-founder Clarke Webster II, Mary Anna's uncle, now in his mid-70s, remains with the company as chairman of the board and director of research and development. The 44-year-old Swennumson's business background includes a master's degree in finance, marketing and transportation.

The 43-year-old company operated at three separate locations until 1986, when it moved to its new, 51,000-square-foot facility. The sleek, new plant is modularly designed for easy add-on to both the...