Discouraging news about two major Columbia industries has hit in recent months: More than 100 layoffs at the Pioneer parachute factory and the sale of Jones Companies main product to a California firm.
Part of that is the normal business cycle. Companies ebb and flow and are bought and sold; some close and new ones rise in their place. That will always happen in a free-market economy, and trying to stop it is inefficient and futile.
Yet it’s never good for a community when ownership moves further and further away from local control. In Pioneer’s case, it is Columbia’s oldest industry, dating back to the 1930s, but has been owned by a French company for three decades, which recently got bought out by an even larger French corporation. What that means for the local factory remains unknown; officials have not responded to requests for interviews.
For Jones, its Yak Access business, which makes hardwood mats used for temporary roads to pipeline and power line construction, has been purchased by Platinum Equity, a huge outfit that specializes in buyouts and is run by the billionaire owner of the Detroit Pistons. It bought a 50.1 percent stake in Yak Access for $850 million recently, which means Yak Access is valued at about $1.7 billion.
Obviously, a company like Platinum Equity does not make an acquisition unless it expects a strong return, and so the purchase reflects Jones Companies’ extraordinary success in growing its business. You can’t help but tip your cap to its management, but at the same time it’s unlikely Platinum Equity will have any loyalty to Columbia, and Jones Companies seems to be shifting toward Hattiesburg, where it is taking temporary office space instead of building a second office at its campus outside Columbia.
This is all part of a growing and troubling question: How can rural communities like Columbia compete in today’s economy when all the growth is toward bigger cities? In fact, that’s a problem for all of Mississippi, considering it’s one of the most rural states in the union.
City of Columbia officials have been progressive in exploring solutions since the new board took office last year, and we’re hopeful that some of their initiatives, such as annexation, will pay dividends in the long term.
While we don’t have a crystal ball with all the answers, there is one thing that seems to always be inherent to successful communities: Successful public schools. That’s the top way to produce people who will help build the community in the future and to attract new blood.
We’re encouraged by some of the positive steps by the city and county schools recently. Their success or failure is the community’s success or failure.
None of us can control, nor would we want to, what private businesses do, but as a community each of us can help create conditions that will make people want to come here.
— Charlie Smith
