Mayor Lori Lightfoot celebrated #Manufacturing Month by taking a tour of Howe Corporation, a fourth-generation, woman-owned manufacturing company that has operated in the North Branch for 110 years.
We’re pleased that Mayor Lightfoot visited our service area and highlighted the valuable role played by industrial and manufacturing firms.
As a Local Industrial Retention Initiative (LIRI) delegate agency for the city, North Branch Works regularly advocates for industrial and manufacturing firms and the preservation of land zoned for these uses.
We know that industrial companies create high-paying, head-of-household jobs that do not require advanced degrees. Industrial jobs are an essential foundation for keeping Chicago neighborhoods equitable and affordable.
For these reasons, we’d like the City of Chicago to adopt a citywide industrial policy so that zoning change requests can be evaluated within a larger context.
Located at 1650 N. Elston Avenue, Howe Corporation manufactures and sells refrigeration equipment that preserves our food supply chain.
The company is well-known for its machines which produce flake ice. It’s ideal to use flake ice to preserve food because it has the most surface area contact of any form of ice and provides the greatest cooling capacity.
Some of Howe Corporation’s high-profile clients include Whole Foods, Panera Bread, Wegmans, Concool, and the Seattle Fish Company. And you can find Howe’s machines in over fifty of the top 100 supermarket chains in the U.S. and over 100 countries globally.
North Branch Works would like to congratulate Howe Corporation, the Illinois Manufacturers Association, IMEC Illinois, and World Business Chicago on a great tour with Mayor Lightfoot today.
We’d like to thank Mayor Lightfoot for celebrating Manufacturing Month in our service area and her support of industrial and manufacturing firms.
Also, we’d like to recognize Maria and Alex from Howe Corporation (pictured below) for a dynamic presentation during #ManufacturingDay on Friday, Oct. 7th.
This program brought together students from Bowen High School for tours of MxD’s state-of-the-art Factory Floor and a discussion of modern manufacturing and careers.
Check out our blog and social media in October for features of manufacturing firms in the North Branch.
Image credit (top): Illinois Manufacturing Excellent Center
