News

Year in review: Major expansion at Accuform

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Hernando Today
Published: December 28, 2012

BROOKSVILLE - The county had teased the media for weeks about a major economic bombshell about to erupt somewhere in Hernando County.

It was so secretive that the economic development department assigned a special code name to the project to avoid any leaks.

On Oct. 4, it all came out when it was announced that Accuform Signs was planning a major expansion. The expansion has landed in the No. 6 spot on Hernando Today's Top 10 stories for 2012.

Accuform Signs was once a modest splinter company that relocated from Canada and slid comfortably into a 2,000-square-foot building in New Port Richey.

By early 2014, it will become a manufacturing heavyweight, filling a space equal to the size of two-and-a-half Sam's Club stores. The new 304,000-square-foot building will sit on 40 acres and will contain a work force of more than 550 people.

"It's unbelievable," said Accuform founder Ron Johnson. "I had no clue it would grow like this."

Accuform's expansion announcement Oct. 4 elicited a visit from Gov. Rick Scott, U.S. Rep. Rich Nugent (R-Spring Hill) and mostly everyone elected to local office or running for it.

Roughly 120 people crammed into the lobby of the Hernando County Office of Business Development in the Airport Industrial Park.

Scott said Accuform's seed was planted 36 years ago after Johnson decided to move out of a country with high taxes and cold weather. He also said Florida was the most logical place Johnson's sons — who now run the company — could choose for an expansion.

The package of incentives offered to Accuform also played a role, said Mike McHugh, who manages the Office of Business Development. There was an estimated $5.7 million in grants associated with the deal, according to state and county statistics.

"Florida is where we wanted to stay and Hernando County was the right part of Florida for us to be in," said CEO Wayne Johnson.

Johnson credited McHugh for his fast action and hard work. When the company notified McHugh's office it was contemplating moving, setting up a satellite location out of state or expanding at its current location, McHugh met with Johnson within a few hours.

He laid out everything — and showed up with a team ready to present to Johnson and his associates what incentives would be available if they kept everything in the industrial park.

"There was a legitimate (possibility) they were going to stop the growth here and build a satellite location elsewhere," said McHugh. Michigan was one possibility. Wisconsin was reported to be another.

"We were very fortunate they chose to stay," McHugh said.