One of the more interesting facets of the manufacturing businesses that dot Rocky Hill’s business parks is the near absence of manufacturing businesses that dot Rocky Hill’s business parks—or anywhere else in town, for that matter.
It’s not by accident, said Michael Bocchini, chairman of the town’s economic development commission and Rocky Hill’s mayor from 1990 to 1994. The near-absence of manufacturing in town is largely the legacy of The Connecticut Foundry, formerly on Meadow Road and Glastonbury Avenue, which went out of business in 1983, but was used as storage until 1993.
Pollution and an unconvertible building left Rocky Hill’s town fathers with a sore taste for heavy manufacturing. That rancor lives on today. Its evidence is the bare handful of manufacturing tenants in the town’s business parks and vacant buildings, for which Rocky Hill’s Economic Development Director, Raymond Carpentino, said he aggressively pursues office space and non-manufacturing tenants to fill.
“We’re looking for the right kinds of tenants in town,” he said. It’s not that Rocky Hill doesn’t want manufacturers – it’s still permitted in some parts of town by zoning changes pushed through in 2005. It’s just that the town’s leadership is less enthusiastic about what repercussions manufacturing might bring.
Clinging To Life
Of course there are exceptions. Most noticeably is Loctite, the town’s largest employer, which manufactures adhesives and fasteners. Another, Cleary Millworks, builds home interior components. But the small Rocky Hill manufacturing business has gone the way of the dodo.
That’s the backstory that makes Merrifield Paint Co., Rocky Hill’s second oldest business, so intriguing. It operates from a small building that looks more like a house on Inwood Road, overlooking the Inwood Business Park, which many of the “right kinds” of tenants now call home.
John Merrifield Sr. moved the business to Inwood Road from Wethersfield in 1961, and his two sons, Doug and John Jr., have run it since their father’s death 10 years ago.
You’ve likely never seen their paints at retail, at least not under their own label. They cater almost exclusively to the area’s architects, since many of Merrifield’s paints are formulated to survive the harsh weather cycles in New England. Much of the exterior of Westfarms Mall, for instance, is covered in Merrifield’s paints.
They also make paints that that do unusual things. One type of paint, which lies unseen beneath wallpaper in both Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods hotel rooms, allows wall coverings to be easily ripped off without damaging the top of the sheet rock beneath.
Merrifield has also partnered with Hamilton Sundstrand to develop a super high temperature paint that’s used to coat the heat exchanger on the engines of Boeing 747 jetliners.
Perhaps it’s the location that’s led to Merrifield’s longevity. Right next door, sits Hayn Enterprises, a 40-year-old manufacturer of marine and industrial products. Hayn builds components for steel cable fencing, among other things, which were used in sections of the Bristol Motor Speedway, as well as a number private projects and houses across New England.
They’re apparently getting popular: In 2005, Hayn had more than 40 percent sales growth.
Are they the right kind of businesses for the new Rocky Hill? Maybe. But with a combined near-century in business, Merrifield and Hayn are probably doing something right.
Kenneth J. St. Onge is associate editor of the Hartford Business Journal.