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Light maker plans to hire 40

State grant will help Hughey & Phillips expand in Urbana.

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By Brandon Smith-Hebson, Staff Writer 10:21 PM Monday, February 27, 2012

URBANA — The state allocated money Monday to upgrade a local business’ equipment as part of a facilities and jobs expansion.

The Ohio Controlling Board voted to approve a $24,000 grant for local light maker Hughey & Phillips, which will fund automated equipment to help meet its customers’ demands, a company spokesman said.

“We went up and presented our business case to the, I guess you would say, the authorities, in August,” said Richard Finkbine, executive vice president of the 50-person Urbana company. “I’m glad to hear it ... got approved.”

The company, and its circuit-assembly partner SARICA Manufacturing, recently moved into a much larger facility on Twain Avenue, and plans to expand to about 90 employees by 2014. That’s the company’s end of the bargain for the state grant.

“We’re on track for that and probably a little ahead of the curve,” Finkbine said.

Finkbine’s company makes the type of lights required to be mounted at the tops of tall structures so planes steer clear. As the companies that own cell towers and smokestacks transition from incandescent to LED bulbs, Hughey & Phillips stands to profit.

LED bulbs use about one-tenth the electricity and last 10 times as long, Finkbine said. So the incentive to switch is there, but what happens when all the towers use LED bulbs and don’t need to replace them frequently?

“I think there’s approximately 300,000 cell towers alone in the U.S.,” Finkbine said. “It’s going to take us a while to get all .... those towers retrofitted. And we’re already thinking about our next steps.”

The combination of Hughey & Phillips and SARICA Manufacturing was recently awarded the 2012 Entrepreneurial Business Award by the Wittenberg Center for Applied Management. The award recognizes business innovation and ecological sustainability.

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