John C Stevenson | Columbia Business Monthly
The manufacturer that was founded more than a century ago in Mishawaka, Indiana, now occupies a 75,000-square-foot headquarters in Mauldin’s BridgeWay Station.
Dodge Industrial might not be as familiar as the other Dodge – the one that makes cars (there’s no relation) – but in an ironic touch, Dodge lndustrial’s first product was the Magic Wagon Jack, which founder Wallace Dodge invented in 1878 and which became the leading jack of the day for performing wagon maintenance.
From those beginnings, Dodge Industrial has grown into a worldwide manufacturer of a wide range of mechanical power-transmission solutions, including mounted bearings, enclosed gearing, couplings, conveyor components, bushings, hubs and collars, and belted drives, according to the company’s website. Before coming to the Upstate, Dodge Industrial was headquartered in Cleveland.
n its facilities in Greenville and Belton, Dodge Industrial manufactures enclosed gearing used in a wide range of industrial applications.
The company employs almost 1,650 people worldwide, with almost half of those – 770 – in the Upstate, according to Lisa Dwight, Dodge Industrial vice president of marketing and communications.
Dwight said Dodge Industrial originally opened its corporate offices on Ponders Court in Greenville in 1981 after a company manager noted the influx of industry to the Upstate.
“We saw industry moving: South, so we followed suit with the opening of the Rogersville, Tennessee [plantj,” she said. “Greenville was selected because the general manager for the mechanical division, Bill Hendricks, was from the area and spoke to the large industry that was moving to town – Michelin, Fluor Daniel, etc.”
And while the Ponder Court location served the company for more than three decades, of late, the leadership had noted a need for larger and more modern facilities.
“Following an extensive research-and-evaluation process on the cost to upfit the existing building to meet the needs of the current workforce, the leadership team determined a relocation to a modern facility was the right decision for the company to meet its needs for current and future growth and development,” Dwight said.
“As a leader in our industry, Dodge needs an office environment that aligns with our innovative, forward-thinking nature, and the new office building allows for improved space utilization, better collaboration, lower maintenance costs, and improved operations, all located in this exciting new development, Bridge Way Station.”
Dwight said the new headquarters facility also includes an Innovation Center, which is a hotbed for the development and testing of Dodge Industrial products.
In addition to its Mauldin headquarters, Dodge Industrial operates five manufacturing facilities in the U.S., including the Belton and Greenville operations, according to Dwight. She said the company “is proud to say” it manufactures 85 to 90 percent of all its products in the Southeastern U.S.