OELWEIN - The last of a convoy of 53 trucks bearing heavy industrial presses from Dubuque to Oelwein pulled into town today, as Ashley Industrial Molding Inc. began setting up its new production center here.

Indiana-based Ashley Industrial Molding, a custom molder and painter of plastic products and assemblies for agricultural, industrial, construction and other markets, is a prime supplier to John Deere's Waterloo and Ottumwa operations.

The new operation, which is opening in phases, will have 125 full-time workers.

"For the last year, we had been working on expansion plans, and what prompted the move to Oelwein was the growth in our business and the opportunities in the future that we have been looking at," said Scott Flughoeft, the company's vice president of operations. "John Deere is one of our larger customers worldwide, and we ship quite a bit of product to the Waterloo operation, which is close by."

The company moved into a 135,000-square-foot building, once occupied by Triangle Plastics, on the southern edge of town.

The move had been finalized last December, according to Oelwein officials.

"The town and the county have done everything in their power to help us," Flughoeft said. "We were looking for an existing facility, and Oelwein came to the top quickly."

Rich Carias has been hired to manage the plant.

Ashley will supply components for Deere's 8000 and 9000 Series tractors that are manufactured in Waterloo and will ship windrowers to Deere's Ottumwa operation, Flughoeft said.

The Oelwein plant opened its first phase of operation July 20, with its paint line. Twenty-five workers already are on the job, Flughoeft said.

After Labor Day, the second phase will kick in, the presses - shipped by barge from Indiana to Dubuque - brought in on a convoy of trucks will start to function in phases. By mid-October 40 additional workers will be employed to operate them, Flughoeft said.

The target, he added, is to have all 125 workers in place in three years.

To Sally Falb, executive director of the Oewlein Chamber and Development, the addition of Ashley Industrial Molding is the latest in a string of positive business developments in Oelwein, a major employment center in Fayette County, which had a jobless rate near 8 percent in June.

"The economic development community here is very strong," Falb said. "We work very hard to accommodate these compawnies, so they locate here. We work on all aspects of their presence and continue that as they get themselves established in the community."

Ashley joins Abraxis BioScience Inc., a Los Angeles-based pharmaceutical company that manufactures chemotherapy drwugs, which recently moved into the old Tyson Fresh Meat plant, as Oelwein's newest employers. Abraxis brought 50 new jobs to town.

"We work with the state on incentives, and Oelwein is an enterprise zone community, and there are some added incentives through that designation," Falb said. "It's just a matter of working with the companies. Whatever their needs, we help them."