In a changing world and changing economic landscape, IBS Industries in Independence continues to adapt and grow.
Although a nonprofit, executives describe IBS as operating as a business, providing a variety of goods and services while growing beyond the old model of a sheltered workshop but still sticking to its mission.
“Our expertise is in providing employment for people with developmental disabilities,” says Chief Executive Officer Stan Shurmantine.
The company, now celebrating 40 years in business, does a variety of work. It assembles and packages medical kits. It destroys business documents under exacting national standards. It recently opened a recycling center in Independence and plans to expand. Some of its employees are janitors. It’s even sticking its toe into the lawn-care business.
It is opening a store – “a cross between an old Ben Franklin and a Dollar General,” Shurmantine says – this spring. It will be in the old BB Drug Store in the Maywood area of western Independence. It should create four or five jobs at first, and that’s the kind of growth Shurmantine is looking for.
It’s part of an effort to keep finding markets and opportunities as old ones sometimes fade over time. It has to. For example, IBS used to package products for Hallmark, which is here in Kansas City. Since the North American countries adopted a free-trade agreement in the early ’90s, it actually has become cheaper for the company to put those items on a train to Mexico, where they are packaged and then brought back to Kansas City.
“Traditional workshop work is handwork – packaging things and so on. Those jobs are gone and are not coming back.” Shurmantine said.
So a big part of Shurmantine’s job is to keep looking over the horizon and figure what’s coming next.
“You have to have a plan and stick to that plan. And you have to take risks,” Shurmantine said.
One risk was starting up a document destruction business that it runs at Geospace – in the caves – not far from its main Independence facility. The group’s board at first wasn’t so sure about the idea.
But it’s worked out.
There are specific and strict rules on destroying any business documents that might have personal information such as Social Security numbers. The group that certifies companies in this line of work inspects twice a year – plus pays surprise visits in which inspectors will actually try to break into the facility and get documents. Believe it or not, you can run documents through an office shredder and then just toss it all in the trash – not a good idea, IBS says – but there are computer programs out there to put those back together like a jigsaw puzzle.
That’s where someone like IBS helps. The papers are shredded and mixed with others, and only then packed into bales to be sent off for recycling.
“This could have 20 customers in it. It could have 100 customers in it,” says Chief Operating Officer Shawna Clay, pointing to a bale of papers cut into ribbons five-sixteenths of an inch wide.
A company that decides it’s time to clear out a bunch of old files isn’t likely to go through page by page to pull out those with personal data. It’s easier just to just turn the whole pile over to another company. You can even watch your papers go through the shredder. A broadening awareness of those rules, which are fairly recent, figures to work to IBS’s advantage in the future.
Near the shredding and baling is a new baler for corrugated cardboard. The Truman Heartland Community Foundation recently paid for it, the second of two such bailers it has bought for IBS. That means another couple of jobs.
One and two and five at a time, these add jobs, and that’s what the company is looking for, what Shurmantine calls “not large numbers, but good, stable employment.”
There is plan for each client, with a period review of whether he or she is happy with the work and wants to keep at it. Officials stress the importance of work for anyone: It means a paycheck, it often means living independently, and it means having more control over one’s own life. IBS also has to be flexible. Developmental disabilities run a broad range, affecting the ability to work in different ways, from skill development to even the number of hours a person can put in each day.
“We look at the individual. Maybe eight hours is too much, but five is fine,” Clay says. Another example, she says, is a driver she has who periodically must be hospitalized for about a week. Few if any private companies would put up with the hassle and productivity issues there, but IBS can make room for that person.
IBS has about 90 employees in Independence and another 75 at its Blue Springs facility, which is west of Missouri 7 about a mile south of U.S. 40. It also has a waiting list for jobs yet to become available. Most clients come to IBS by word-of-mouth referrals, transition fairs and programs in the schools such as School to Work.
There is also an emphasis on “the IBS way” – a focus on how it expects to get things done. They use words and phrases such as cooperation, initiative, a positive attitude, consistency, safety, teamwork and “do it the right way every time.”
Across the street from the main Independence facility on Yuma, IBS recently opened a recycling center taking paper, cardboard ¬– the corrugated kind and the cereal box kind – aluminum cans, tin cans and plastic No. 1 and No. 2. (but no glass). It’s at 1100 S. Yuma Ave, Independence. Hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. Call 816-796-7070 or go to www.ibsindustries.com.
The recycling center has also got something else: It’s one of the few places in Eastern Jackson County that will take electronics such as computers, printers, monitors and cell phones. There are small fees for those.
The center has three jobs so far.
“We eventually see that going to 10 or 12,” Shurmantine said.
There are challenges ahead, too, as the economy has struggled.
“It’s probably not been as bad for us as others, but we’ve felt it,” Shurmantine says.
The company gets state and county money, and both of those governments are dealing with declining revenues.
“We can ride it out this year. I worry about future years,” Shurmantine says.
One policy that helps is that the federal government sets aside contracts for companies hiring the severely disabled. This month, two local state representatives – Republican Bryan Pratt of Blue Springs and Democrat Paul LeVota of Independence, both of whom serve in the House leadership – filed legislation to have the state mirror that policy.
Eastern Jackson County, MO —
