Business

SIDNEY — At the end of October, Emerson announced a definitive agreement under which it will sell a majority stake in its Climate Technologies business to Blackstone, the world’s premier and highly respected global investment firm. As a new standalone company, the Climate Technologies business will continue to build upon its reputation as an industry leader within the heating, cooling and refrigeration (HVACR) markets, focusing investment in top growth programs and advancing sustainability goals for its customers. The sale is expected to become final in the first half of the 2023 calendar year and the new company name will be announced at that time.

ANNA — The Anna Engine Plant (AEP) opened in 1985 as a 200,000 square-foot facility with just 94 associates. Today, the 2.8 million square-foot facility is Honda’s largest engine plant in the world, with more than 60 production lines covering casting, machining, heat treating, and assembly operations, and is one of the industry’s most vertically integrated engine plants. The facility supplies engines and powertrain components for Honda and Acura products made in Ohio, Indiana, Alabama, Canada, Mexico, and other locations across the globe and has produced nearly 30 million engines over the past 35 years.

TROY — According to Owner/Brokers David Galbreath and Wayne Snyder and real estate publications, the 2022 market can be summarized as volatile at best while 2023 is forecasted as a slow return to normalcy.

SIDNEY — Last year was a strong year for Freshway Foods as they maintained their commitment to serving as a reliable, innovative supplier of fresh-cut processing, repacking, cross docking, and logistics to leading foodservice and retail customers in the eastern half of the United States. Freshway Foods concentrated on growing the business after two years of Covid-19 related restrictions. While Covid-19 related shutdowns were in the rear-view mirror, much of the country continued to navigate supply chain shortages and inflationary cost pressures. “2022 was a year of rebounding sales and growth in our core businesses,” said Devon Beer, president of Freshway Foods and Freshway Logistics.

TROY — Durnell Maier Law LLC recently celebrated its three-year anniversary. The firm was founded by Elizabeth Durnell-Maier and is dedicated to advising clients on a wide range of elder law matters. Services offered by the firm include wills, trusts, estate planning, Medicaid planning, VA aid and attendance, probate, special needs trusts, and farm trusts.

SIDNEY — “Despite the increasing levels of financial and economic uncertainty that we all have faced over the past year, Mutual Federal has continued to generate record financial performance through this period,” said President Dean Weinert. “While the residential mortgage market has softened a bit from its last few years of unprecedented activity due to the Fed’s continuing strategic efforts to combat inflation through a series of interest rate hikes, overall loan volume growth for the bank of over 15% has continued to reflect strong growth within our local markets, indicative of the actual underlying strength in our economy.”

TROY — In April 2022, Howard Hanna Real Estate Services (Howard Hanna), continuing to execute its long-term strategic growth plan, announced a merger with HER, REALTORS, the country’s largest agent-owned real estate firm. This transaction added approximately 1,200 agents and 90 offices to Howard Hanna’s portfolio, expanding its footprint in Ohio, Michigan and Northern Kentucky.

SIDNEY — 2022 was a great year for D&S Construction thanks to the groundwork the company had done previously.

Choice One Engineering, a civil engineering, landscape architecture and surveying firm located in Sidney, Ohio, had a year of growth in 2022. The company, founded in Sidney in 1994 (with a second office in Loveland, Ohio), provides services to public and private clients throughout western Ohio, eastern Indiana and northern Kentucky.

RUSSIA — Francis Schulze Company, located in Russia, specializes in the wholesale distribution of building materials to lumber dealers, retail home centers and door specialists throughout the Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Kentucky markets.