SBA loans keep Cleveland manufacturing industry afloat

7/15/2011

The manufacturing industry in the Cleveland area is booming thanks to loans from the Small Business Association, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

A total of 136 manufacturers in northern Ohio have received SBA loans in 2011 for a combined total of $56 million - a nearly $40 million increase over two years ago.

"Unlike past economic downturns where manufacturing has never really come back in the Cleveland area, what we're experiencing now illustrates the opposite is true," Gil Goldberg, director of the SBA's Cleveland district, tells the news source. "Manufacturing is leading the way out of the recession and creating jobs."

Goldberg attributes the industry's recovery primarily to the auto industry bailout and an increase in overseas orders.

One company - Advance Manufacturing - was recently awarded a $2 million SBA loan. This freed up funds to purchase an alloy steel cutter and re-hire nine of its employees who were laid off two years earlier.

WTAM-FM reports that an initiative called the Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network was recently launched in Cleveland to help returning war veterans obtain jobs in the industry. The U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration will provide funding for the program.