Mark Gracy founded Bully Tools in 1994 in Pittsburgh, relocating to Jefferson County 12 years ago, drawn by, among other factors, a more business-friendly tax structure. -- Staff photo

STEUBENVILLE — If he had his way, Mark Gracy’s Bully Tools already would be breaking ground at the Jefferson County Industrial Park for Phase I of his 60,000-square-foot expansion plan.

But it’s winter and there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes details that have to be addressed before Gracy can sign on the dotted line and take possession of the county-owned property. Things aren’t moving nearly as fast as the do-it-yesterday Gracy would like, and he admits he’s antsy.

“We’re growing, we’re just trying to figure out where we should grow,” he said. “I’m trying to work with local officials, but we’re ready to break ground — I would have liked to break ground a month ago. The only holdup right now is we don’t own the land, we’re waiting on the county to sell to us.”

Because his site is landlocked, Gracy said one of the holdups has been securing a permit for a loading dock off state Route 4.

“Our contractors are chomping at the bit to get started on it,” Gracy said. “There’s been a slight delay, but we should be able to set up an actual closing soon so we can take possession of the property. Once that (closing) happens, we can take possession of the ground.”

Gracy founded Bully Tools in 1994, working out of a tiny, 1,500-square-foot workspace in his native Pittsburgh. He left it behind 12 years ago to relocate to Jefferson County, drawn here by a more business-friendly tax structure, the Buckeye state’s workers compensation program, lower utilities costs, a better political climate and what he described as “a very motivated” workforce.

Here, he built a state-of-the-art plant and started churning out tools — not the kind that fall apart the first time you use them, but high-quality, long-lasting, American-made tools crafted from American materials by Americans.

Now he’s ready to expand,acquiring a 3.66-acre parcel next to his existing plant. The $6.7 million upgrade plan includes adding another 60,000 square feet of production space in a two-stage growth plan. Phase I will add 20,000 square feet to the existing 37,000-square-foot facility.

The expansion will create at least 30 new jobs.

“By year’s end we probably should be at 90, or close to it,” he said. “Really, what’s holding us up from hiring any more right now is not having the new building and extra space. (But) we should be able to hire those 30 (easily) within a three- to four-year time frame — I anticipate hiring all 30 of them and more this year.”

Gracy says his expansion strategy makes perfect sense.

“We’re seeing phenomenal growth, our product is taking off nationwide,” Gracy adds. “It’s in very high demand, and we expect to exceed all of our growth projections.”

Turns out, there’s a very big market for items made in the U.S.A. from materials made in the U.S.A., and Gracy has made sure potential buyers know his products deliver all of that by officially adding it to the name — 100 Percent Made in the U.S.A. Bully Tools.

“It’s the design of our products,” Gracy said. “Right from the get-go, I didn’t want to make just another shovel, it had to pass my test — I look at where (tools) might fail and we engineered around it to make ours noticeably better, and the public picked up on that.”

Jefferson County Port Authority Executive Director Robert Naylor said that focus on quality has made Bully a classic American success story.

“The name change happened because he believes in American ingenuity, American knowledge, American stick-to-itiveness — how to stay with a project and see it through. That stamp of approval means it’s not just ‘Made in America,’ but it’s made by Bully Tools,” Naylor said.

“America is known for ingenuity and creativity, the ability to develop and produce new products and bring them to market very quickly. That’s exactly what Bully Tools epitomizes — old-fashioned American ingenuity.”

Naylor said county leaders are pleased the expansion will bring 30 good-paying jobs, “but what is exciting about this project is the fact that Bully Tools came here almost 10 years go, they have developed a product…recognized in the industry not only by their peers but also by a public that continues to buy their product and give it the consumer rating it gets.”

“It’s just a good fit for the industrial park,” Jefferson County Commissioner Dave Maple agreed, adding, “We’re glad we can help them in any way — we know they have a good, successful growth project. Our ability to help them through abatements, land sales and in other ways, that’s always what we encourage and (what) we’re hoping to see business do in our county.”

The 100 Percent Made in the U.S.A. Bully Tools product line features top quality lawn and garden tools, shovels, rakes, snow scoops, shingle removers, floor scrapers and other specialty tools. The company’s capabilities include engineering, tooling, metal fabrication, stamping, forming, robotic welding, plasma cutting, heat treating, tempering, powder coating, assembly, and packaging. They’re sold in brick-and-mortar stores as well as major online marketplaces, including heavyweights like homedepot.com, truevalue.com, lowes.com, walmart.com, amazon.com, gempler.com and, of course, their own bullytools.com.

“Purchasers look at star reviews, they look at who has the best product, not who has the cheapest product,” Gracy said. “And that’s Bully Tools. We have all five-star products, the design and materials put into ours are superior. Our growth online has been incredible, we’re exceeding all of our sales goals — the only holdup is us not have the building built, we can’t hire more people because we have no place to put them.”

Gracy said Bully will go to a seven-day-a-week operation in early March, “splitting our shifts up to where we’ll be closer to a 24/7. Weekends, we’ll be basically covering about 14 hours on Saturday and Sunday, on other days we’ll basically be working around the clock.”

He said the deal that brought Bully to Ohio back in 2006 had included a lower interest mortgage for expansion over 15 years that he paid off early — eight years early, to be precise.

“Bully Tools has a history of under-promising and over-performing, and we believe that, rather than create 30 jobs over a four-year period, we’ll create 50 jobs this year alone,” Gracy said, adding he’ll “move heaven and earth to be able to occupy the (new) building by the end of June. The only holdup is the (county signing off) and the weather breaking.”