West Michigan manufacturers diversify into green energy, lenders have to learn new industries fast

As West Michigan manufacturers diversify into the new economy of alternative energy and related sectors, lenders scramble to keep up with the new knowledge base.

He considers it a niche product line -- for now. But in the future, Bob Brady expects the edgings his company produces for the blades of wind turbines produced by an Iowa company to represent a growing and larger part of the business, as wind energy gains further traction in America.

"It's a toe in the door and, hopefully, there's an awful lot that's going to be done in that industry," said Brady, co-owner and president of GMI Composites Inc. in Muskegon. "We've been asked to prepare to do three to four times what we're doing now in the next few years," he said.

GMI Composites 18 months ago secured a large loan from Huntington Bank to acquire the capital equipment needed to diversify into new product lines, including wind energy. The move by GMI Composites is exactly what business leaders and economic developers are preaching for manufacturers -- diversification into new and emerging economic sectors.

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