Ozark Mountain Technologies Inc.

From the past, to the present

In 1993, OMT leased this facility for nine months

Ozark Mountain Technologies (OMT) continues to be a strong business and stable employer in Cuba's Industrial Park. OMT specializes in precision metal finishing of aerospace, defense and commercial aluminum, titanium and stainless steel parts. The company also does metal testing and finishing, including tests for conductivity, hardness, humidity, penetrant inspection, priming and painting. Originally founded in St. Clair Missouri in 1993, OMT leased a facility for nine months and then made plans to build.

When the city of St. Clair didn't offer much for the company to stay, OMT's President Greg Smotherman met with Cuba Economic Development Coordinator Norman DeLeo about relocating to Cuba Missouri. Ron Lewis, owner of Lewis Machine and Tool, had product anodized by OMT and had suggested the meeting. OMT is now located adjacent to Lewis’s plant in the industrial park. DeLeo worked out a deal to bring OMT to Cuba and the new plant opened in August 1995. OMT continued to operate its other plant in St. Clair for nine months before finally moving all its operations here. The company doubled in size in terms of space and employment when it moved to Cuba. OMT's facility occupied 30,000 square feet in 1995 and in the summer of 1997, OMT lost a major portion of its work on the passenger-side airbag canister and had to shift much of its customer base to aerospace and defense contractors. This change took a lot of work from the company's key people because it took OMT more than a year to become certified to process parts for the major aircraft companies.

Construction in Cuba begins, spring 1995

The company was then able to grow its work force back to 40 employees plus adding more processing capabilities for its customers. OMT was operating two shifts, five days a week, processing parts for such companies as Boeing Aerospace and Defense and Lockheed-Martin. Within the next year, the company was able to increase its workload by approximately 80 percent and not only upgraded equipment, but expanded with more process lines. In 2003, OMT needed more capacity to service the Aerospace and Department of Defense product, so it added an additional 9,000 square feet to its building which can be seen in the third picture below. It also added additional state of the art down draft paint booths.

As OMT continued to grow, in 2005, OMT had to purchase some of Lewis Machines property and add another 6,000 square feet to the building. OMT had an employee base of about 70 people at this time. Then, as product increased in quantity and size, OMT had to grow once again. With all the extra land used up, OMT started shopping for another site. OMT really wanted to stay in Cuba Missouri but could not find a suitable building site. Then, OMT was notified that Affinia Brake Parts moving to Mexico. OMT jumped at the opportunity to purchase the building. The purchase was made February 2007 and possession took place May 2007. The transition then began with all the cleaning, planning, engineering and purchasing of equipment needed for the expansion.

It has taken OMT and its staff over two and a half years to come to completion of the project, but it expects to be done by first quarter of 2010, including the move of all existing equipment complete. During the last twenty-eight months, OMT has employed an additional 70 employees giving a total of 115 with vision of adding another 100 sometime in 2010. Greg Smotherman Sr. is the company’s president. Other key staff members are: Greg Smotherman Jr., Processing Supervisor; Executive Vice president; Terry Sanders, Vice President of Operations; Marjorie Wagner

OMT with the 9,000 ft. expansion

, Quality Manager; Mike Craghead, Quality Engineer; Kelly O’Connor, IT Manager; Judy Cooley, Production Manager. "We feel very good about the growth potential of the company,” Greg Smotherman Sr, said, “and give thanks to all the support from the City of Cuba and from the employees here at Ozark Mountain Technologies”