Guardian Bikes is at 2230 D Ave. East in the Freeman Field Industrial Park in Seymour.
Zach Spicer | The Tribune
The initial projections for employees and salaries at Guardian Bikes have been exceeded.
When the company moved to Seymour in 2022, the plan was to have one employee make $150,000 per year, five make $100,000, nine make $50,000 and 30 make $40,000.
As of Jan. 19 this year, there are two employees making more than $200,000, two at $120,000-plus, seven at $55,000-plus and 74 at $40,000-plus.
Of those 85 employees, 68 live in Jackson County.
Each year the Seymour Redevelopment Commission reviews the company’s numbers and the targets are hit, there’s a 25% forgiveness of the four-year $100,000 ECLIPSE loan received at the beginning of operations at 2230 D Ave. East in the Freeman Field Industrial Park.
During a recent commission meeting, Jim Plump, executive director of Jackson County Industrial Development Corp., spoke on behalf of the company while asking for forgiveness of the first year of the loan. That was approved 4-0 with President Mark Dennis absent.
Sam Markel, vice president of operations and manufacturing for Guardian Bikes, attended the meeting virtually.
“We really appreciate your help to get us in Seymour and are looking for many more years of growth to come,” he told the commission.
Guardian Bikes is the third company to benefit from ECLIPSE, which stands for Economic Loan Incentive Program-Seymour. The others were Pet Supplies Plus in 2012 and Trellis Earth in 2014.
The JCIDC-developed program provides a cash loan to help offset startup costs based on job creation. Loan proceeds come from tax increment finance or economic development income tax funds, and the amount of the loan is tied directly to the number of new jobs (permanent full-time positions) and wages.
Existing and new industrial companies are eligible to apply, provided the applicant creates at least 25 new jobs. An applicant is eligible to apply for a loan based on the number of employees who live in Jackson County.
The program is designed as a forgivable loan. Each year, the company submits a compliance form to the redevelopment commission and common council to show jobs created, wages and residency of employees.
Based on compliance, the city boards approve loan forgiveness for that year. If not in compliance, the company could be required to make that year’s loan payment. The interest rate would be determined per project as part of the terms.
“We understand that certainly, there are people who commute in to work at our industries, but when this program was formed several years ago, the idea was to really try to attract as many workers as we could to live in Jackson County,” Plump said.
Guardian Bikes launched at the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, in September 2015. Friends Brian Riley and Kyle Jansen appeared on the television show “Shark Tank” and received $500,000 from Mark Cuban for a 15% share in the company.
It started in Irvine, California, but moved to Austin, Texas, in the spring of 2020 and then Seymour two years later.
Commission member Tim Hardin asked Markel about plans for this year.
“The hourly workforce, we will more than likely sustain. We are looking at building what I would call our salaried workers,” Markel said. “We are currently actively looking for a chief financial officer, a chief marketing officer, as well, and then just some quality engineers as well as some design engineers, so the salary side definitely beefing up for the growth.”
From 2022 to 2023, Markel said the company experienced nearly five times more growth.
“We had a really, really strong year in 2023 … and we see that continuing this year, as well,” he said. “We definitely needed to increase the salary workforce that helped provide some relief for some of us that are currently working a lot of hours.”