REBUILDING AMERICA'S HEARTLAND

How one Midwest town is making a comeback as a manufacturing hub by developing a partnership with Slate Auto

- BY EILEEN FALKENBERG-HULL

THE TOWN OF WARSAW, INDIANA, IS ONLY 10 years older than the R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company printing company, with their histories linked for generations—something that recent arrival Slate Auto will be hoping to replicate.

R.R. Donnelley is an American Midwest success story. At the dawn of the 20th century, the company was one of the largest publishing houses in the U.S., printing Encyclopedia Britannica, Sears, Roebuck & Co and JCPenney catalogs, Time magazine, Life magazine, maps, promotional materials for the Ford Model T and Random House books. By mid-century, the business was booming and expanding, including a 1.4 million-square-foot plant in Warsaw.

Located along U.S. Route 30 and about an hour from the cities of Fort Wayne, South Bend and Valparaiso, Indiana, Warsaw is in the heart of Middle America.

Today, the town has a population of around 16,000, double the residents that called Warsaw home in the 1970s. Warsaw’s population depends on American industry. Not only was it home to the Donnelley factory, but it is also the “Orthopedic Capital of the World” and home to the first orthopedic device manufacturer, DePuy Manufacturing. At its peak, Donnelley’s, as the locals call it, employed approximately 2,000 people, a significant portion of the area’s population.

“I’m here today because my dad had an opportunity to work there for 38 years. My brother, before his passing, worked there for close to 30,” Warsaw Mayor Jeff Grose told Newsweek.

In 2016, Donnelley’s Warsaw printing business was sold to LSC Communications. By 2020, the company had filed for bankruptcy and been purchased by Atlas Holdings, a private equity company. Three years later, the decision was made to close the Warsaw plant, leaving all 525 workers out of a job.

INDUSTRIAL REVIVAL