Business Almanac

Salute to Barksdale

Barksdale Air Force Base pervades Northwest Louisiana with patriotism, valor and prodigious economic clout.

At nearly 10,000 strong, Barksdale’s payroll is easily the region’s largest.

The military installation is basically a city unto itself, sprawling over 22,000 acres. It is home to the 2nd Bomb Wing and the Mighty 8th Air Force, and it operates fighter, bomber, reconnaissance, battle-management and electronic-combat aircraft.

The base also trains, equips and maintains combat-ready forces for rapid deployment.

Plenty of Plastic to Fit the Mold

Continental Structural Plastics is the largest manufacturer of industrial composite molds in North America.

The Detroit-based company with a plant in Sarepta supplies plastic parts to the automotive industry as well as the heating and cooling industry. In fact, the Sarepta plant’s success in recent years prompted the company to add workers and production capacity to the facility in 2007.

At the beginning of the year, about 240 people were employed there.

Fishing for Compliments

Welcome to Cypress Bend Golf Resort & Conference Center, a great place to play a round of – fishing?

The scenic destination near the town of Many is located on Toledo Bend Lake, the fifth-largest manmade impoundment in the United States. The lake’s 186,000 acres of water and 1,200 miles of shoreline have made it a legendary fishing spot for outdoor enthusiasts from around the nation.

The resort also offers fine dining and conference facilities, plus its 18-hole signature golf course – attractions that are helping to make the area a popular destination for retirees.

Get Ready to Roll ’Em

Perhaps the next Steven Spielberg will come out of The Robinson Film Center in downtown Shreveport.

Construction of the center’s new building began in spring 2007, with completion scheduled by the end of the year or early 2008. It will be a hub of filmmaking at all levels, from grade school classes to multimillion-dollar productions.

In addition, the facility will be a venue for showing international, independent and classic films. It will house two theaters, a screening room, multiuse spaces for public events, a café and a film library.

Move Over, Hollywood, Here Comes Natchitoches

Smile for the camera, Northwest Louisianans.

The region is becoming more and more of a filming locale, thanks to its variety of locations. They include marshes, bayous, lakes, rural towns and farms, old cemeteries, a university campus, and white-pillared historic homes.

Natchitoches, most famous as the place where Steel Magnolias was filmed in 1989, also provided the perfect setting for the 2006 NBC-TV movie Year Without Santa Claus, starring John Goodman.

In the last year, the area has convincingly portrayed New York City; Kodiak, Alaska; Amsterdam; Portland, Oregon; and New Hampshire. Working in partnership with the many film commission offices located throughout the region, the Northwest Louisiana Film Alliance offers assistance and information to the many film crews flocking from Hollywood to capitalize on the advantages of doing business in Northwest Louisiana.

Think Small

The science of miniaturization is big business at Louisiana Tech University.

For more than a decade, the school in Ruston has been home to the Institute for Micromanufacturing. Its mission is to provide research and development that results in micro- and nanosystems for the biomedical, biological, environmental, chemical and information-technology industries.

The institute, which occupies 41,000 square feet of laboratory and office space, is equipped with machines for e-beams, x-ray, optical lithography, ion and laser processing, injection molding, and microdrilling.

Landed on Mars

Haynes International Inc. makes products that are out of this world.

The developer and producer of high-performance nickel- and cobalt-based alloys has been in business for more than 60 years, and it has a 125,000-square-foot plant in Arcadia.

Perhaps the company’s most accomplished product is a Hastelloy B alloy that was used for nozzles on the Viking I and Viking II rockets that landed on Mars in 1976.

Haynes’ product line includes stock sheets, plates, bars, wires, tubing, fittings and flanges that are used in severe-corrosion and high-temperature situations.

Besides aerospace, industries that use the company’s products include chemical processing, pharmaceuticals, industrial heating, waste management and ceramics.

Meat of the Matter

More than 8 million – that’s how many meat pies the Famous Natchitoches Meat Pie Co. shipped in 2006.

The company has been making the 4-ounce and 1-ounce treats at its Coushatta plant in Red River Parish since the mid-1980s, using these ingredients: ground beef, ground pork, onions, peppers, garlic, flour and seasonings. Forty employees produce 60,000 meat pies daily, along with crawfish pies and other frozen foods.