Tyonek finds a home in Houston County

Houston County is on a steady mode of expansion with both small and large businesses continuing to make one of the three major sister-cities their home. On Thursday, Tyonek Manufacturing claimed its new home in Warner Robins as it held its official ribbon cutting. Though it’s not new to the city, it’s new home has given it substantial growth. The new facility offers over 47,500 square feet of manufacturing and engineer space.

“We’re already open and already functioning,” said General Manager Brad Moriarty, as he gave several leaders of the community a walk-thru of the facility.

The building, located at 44 Green Street, which was formerly the home of Coca-Cola Bottling Company, as been completely renovated. Tyonek Manufacturing Group has been servicing the area for roughly 20 years now, and its parent company, Tyonek Native Corporations (TNC), has been around for even longer.

“We’ve been in existence since the 70s,” President Steve Adlich informed Houston Home Journal in a one-on-one conversation. Adlich has served as president for the last five years. “We have been in Warner Robins for quite some time, but we’re consolidating operations here and adding additional square footage to our operation to enable growth.”

Currently, the group employs about 60 people, according to its president. They work together to support a variety of customers to include Robins Air Force Base.

“We believe that this expansion and this new building is going to enable us to grow significantly in this area.”

Overall, Tyonek Manfacturing Group has 14,000 employees in 16 states. “What we do in the manufacturing group is aviation parts manufacturing, and on the servicing side, we do aviation maintenance and modification for all branches of the military. Here in Warner Robins, we do a lot of automated test equipment development engineering work for DoD (Department of Defense) applications. We also engineering design work as well as rapid prototyping and low rate production work here in this facility.”

TNC, the parent company, is headquartered in Anchorage, Alaska, and several of its board of directors members made the trip from Anchorage to Warner Robins to witness the ribbon cutting that took place on the grounds of the new facility.

Development Authority of Houston County (DAHC) Executive Director Angie Gheesling served as the master of ceremonies at ribbon cutting that was attended by some of county’s most noted leaders including all three of its current mayors, Mayor Randy Toms (Warner Robins), Mayor Randall Walker (Perry) and Mayor John Harley (Centerville). Also present were Houston County Board of Commissioners Tommy Stalnaker and Dan Purdue, Warner Robins Councilmen Derek Mack, Larry Curtis and Clifford Holmes, as well as Central Georgia Technical College President Dr. Ivan Allen and 21st Century Partnership President & CEO retired Brig. Gen. John Kubinek.

Mayor Toms, who had just celebrated his birthday one day prior, extended a welcome. As a part of it he said, “This is incredible. I’ve been here and a part of Warner Robins for 61 years. Thank you so much for the leadership. It’s amazing how long this company has been here and unknown. Hopefully, this historic facility, that you have turned into a new facility, will get you a whole lot more attention from our community. Thank you for being in Warner Robins and for choosing Warner Robins and Houston County.”

Commission Chairman Stalnaker also extended a welcome saying, “It’s a great day. It’s a great day to be here to see the transformation of this facility in this area of Warner Robins and this area of Houston County. I’m in awe just looking at the doorway.” He went on to say, “You are to commended as a company. You’ve been here much longer than I even realized, and we appreciate that. You have not gone unnoticed, but you’re much more noticed today because of what you’ve done on this particular building. On behalf of the county commissioners as well as our three mayors and the all the citizens of Houston County, I want to thank you.

As a part of the agenda, DAHC remarks were also offered by Chairman Ben Hulbert, and Tyonek company remarks were spoken by General Manager Brad Moriarty and President Steve Adlich. Final company remarks came from Tyonek Board of Directors President Michaelene Stephan.

“This is a big change,” Stephan said as a part of her spiel. “Something our shareholders will be proud of. We’re grateful for all of the work Tyonek Manufacturing does and also we’re proud of our veterans and the work that they do for Tyonek Corporation.” She went on to share that the corporation’s board of directors consist of second and third generation directors. “We’re continuing to fulfill our fathers’ and grandfathers’ wishes for our people.”

According to printed matter distributed at the ribbon cutting, “Tyonek Manufacturing Group companies build high-precision mechanical and electrical assemblies., components and kits for aviation, missile and ground systems. Its operations include special processes and capabilities certified to ISO 9001, AS9100 quality standards. The company specializes in complex, high quality electro-mechanical assemblies that require on-site testing and validation in accordance with aerospace standards.”

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