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JBS Technologies to reopen
By PAUL GIANNAMORE, Business editor
WINTERSVILLE — The world headquarters of JBS Technologies is alive again at the Jefferson County Industrial Park.
JBS, manufacturer of after-market remote car starters and alarm systems, closed without notice to employees or customers in early March, but a former employee has purchased the business and is working through the process of restarting the assembly line.
Brett Barta, from Summit County, was vice president of sales for the previous corporate entity of JBS Technologies. JBS, founded as Bulldog by the Snyder family, had been sold in 2003 to a venture firm out of Michigan, Strength Capital. The company closed JBS in early March.
Barta said he had been with JBS for about five years and had resigned with intentions of starting his own similar company just before JBS went into receivership.
“I was going to try to establish my own line and looked at leasing or buying the building, but it seemed the best case to buy the company as well and start from a turnkey operation,” Barta said.
The machinery to assemble the starters and other items were intact and ready to run, he said.
Barta intends to hire as many of the former JBS employees as he can, but he acknowledges the business will go through a slow ramp-up.
“Right now, we’re assessing what’s going on. I’m installing new computer operating systems throughout the building and getting the phone system going again and doing all the due diligence that needs to be taken care of,” he said.
Among the work is obtaining the former representative force that sells JBS items. There were 18 representative firms throughout the country.
“I’m flying all over, visiting our retail customers,” Barta said from his office at JBS on Tuesday.
He said about a half-dozen employees are working, slowly ramping the facility back into production.
“Our business model here always was to sell in the spring, build in the summer, ship in the fall and collect in the winter,” he said.
He said claims that the market for after-market car starters had waned with the advent of many new cars coming from the factory with remote starters installed are overstated.
“What hurt us was a couple of unusually warm winters,” Barta said. “So far, all of our clients and major retailers are still on board.”
JBS had pretty much cornered the market on after-market car starting and alarm systems over the years, holding as much as 87 percent of the do-it-yourself retail market for the products. Major chains including Wal-Mart, Kmart, Sears, Auto Zone, Pep Boys, O’Reilly Auto Parts, CSK and Sam’s Club all sold JBS products under the Bulldog name. During the past two years, Barta explained, JBS had moved into the independent dealer market under the Alert and Carroll Shelby brand names.
He said it made sense to re-establish the existing JBS because it had employees familiar with the work and good retailer relationships.
“We’re looking forward to bringing back as many of the employees as we can, but it will be a slow process,” Barta said.
There had been about 20 employees working at JBS when it went into receivership.
The 37,500 square-foot plant was the first occupant of the Jefferson County Industrial Park off state Route 43 in the late 1990s.
Local businessman Derek Ferguson had saved jobs in early 2006 at JBS by reaching a deal to purchase the building with a five-year lease agreement to JBS. There had been about 66 employees at the facility at the time of the lease. Without the change, the former JBS owners were said to have been ready to move the plant into Western Pennsylvania.
JBS products, according to its Web site, jbstech.com, include the do-it-yourself line of Bulldog Security systems, including remote starters, security systems and keyless entry systems; the Alert products available for dealers and distributors with remote starters and deluxe security systems and keyless entry systems and accessories; the Carroll Shelby line of security, remote start and car care products; and the CellSTARTS system that allows control of a vehicle from any distance through use of a cell phone instead of a key fob.