Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, copyright 2001

3 FIRMS HERE WIN GOVERNOR'S AWARDS

Jerri Stroud

June 1, 2001

Three St. Louis area companies are among this year's winners of Gov. Bob Holden's awards for economic development.

Holden was scheduled to present the awards today at the Governor's Conference on Economic Development at the Lodge of the Four Seasons in Lake Ozark, Mo.

Trinity Products Co., a steel piping and accessories maker in O'Fallon, Mo., was the top winner, getting the governor's achievement award and an award for innovative training and work-force development.

Trinity, founded in 1979, got involved with the state economic development department in 1999, when it had to move because of construction of the St. Charles Family Arena, said Vincent Hasen, vice president and a co-owner with founder Robert Griggs.

Trinity adopted "open-book" management, which involves sharing financial statements with all employees at monthly meetings. By getting its 42 employees interested in the company's performance, Trinity has managed to double its sales in four years to the current $10 million, Hasen said. Trinity also has reduced turnover, a major problem for welding companies.

"Everybody takes ownership in the company," Hasen said. "They see how their piece of the pie affects the over-all organization. It crease a sense that, 'Not only am I working for the company, I'm working for me.'"

The other St. Louis area winners were:

* Multi-Scribe Communicative Services Inc. of Hazelwood, winner of the governor's small business award, recognizing Multi-Scribe's success in developing interactive software that helps businesses improve their communications, cut costs, increase sales and respond more quickly to customers.

* Celox Networks Inc., a maker of telecommunications switches, winner of the technology award. Celox's switch allows cable, telephone and Internet businesses to provide a variety of services with greater security and flexibility. Celox's main development office is in St. Louis, but its headquarters is in Massachusetts, and it has a development center in Bangalore, India.