Production and Manufacturing
Athens County has a well-diversified Production and Manufacturing sector representing many type of products including advanced services and the technology and biomedical fields. Read more below!
Advanced Services
Athens County is well positioned to succeed in advanced services industry—the highly educated population positions the county well for high-wage jobs in Healthcare, Manufacturing, Transportation and Material Moving, Life, Physical and Social Sciences, and Architecture and Engineering. It’s base of advanced services jobs but illustrates growth potential in these emerging industries. Athens County is also fortunate to have multiple interstate natural gas lines traveling across the county that can be a source of low cost energy for energy-intensive manufacturers. For these reasons, Athens County remains an economic powerhouse as a leading center for high-wage advanced services and manufacturing jobs.
The manufacturing sector covers a broad range of industries from food production to consumer products. American manufacturing is a long-standing tradition in Athens County, and the Athens County Economic Development Council will continue to build on its history.
Operating Advanced Services & Manufacturing Companies:
- Athens Mold & Machine
- Global Cooling/Stirling Ultracold
- RXQ Compounding
- Stewart MacDonald
- Jackie O’s Brewery
Technology & Biomedical
Athens County has a strong start in the development of jobs tied to the tech sector and it’s technology commercialization activity is mature. Technology based Economic Development initiatives are attractive because they create high wage “multiplier” jobs with companies in the growth mode for the Information Age economy. The ACEDC intends build on our already successful small business and technology based economic development programs by developing small businesses and attracting technology jobs through the establishment of an Athens Community Fund and development of a technology accelerator. Read more about the Athens Community Fund in our Strategic Plan.
Tech Commercialization Framework
Athens also benefits from an advanced university technology commercialization process at Ohio University. Ohio University has operated a Technology Transfer Office since 1991 that is part of the Vice President for Research and Creative Activity division at Ohio University. The Technology Transfer Office is part of the university’s entrepreneurial ecosystem that works closely with the Innovation Center business incubator, the Edison Biotechnology Institute, the Center for Entrepreneurship, and TechGROWTH Ohio, which provides funding and entrepreneurial support for tech, IT, biomedical, etc. companies in Southeast Ohio.
