In March 2009, the US Department of Commerce awarded the City of Williamston a $400,000 grant to support and expand economic development and create much need jobs.  Funds from the grant will enable the City to construct a connector road and expand public water, sanitary and storm sewer infrastructure in the Williamston I-96 Industrial Park, which initially will facilitate the development of Tri-State Hospital Supply Corporation's new headquarters and R&D facility.  The improvements resulting from the grant will boost the City's efforts to attract private investment that support and compliment our existing businesses, while at the same time helping the City to attract other industries, such as renewable energy and film, to locate to the Williamston I-96 Industrial Park.
 
The grant application process was a multi year, multi-agency endeavor spearhead by Lisa Hitchcock, former Williamston City Manager with assistance from Tri-County Regional Planning and US Economic Development Administration (EDA) officials.  Construction is anticipated to begin this summer. Click to visit the Wiliamston I-96 Industrial Park (Phase 1).

The NO KNOT ROPE LOK is one of the most versatile and easiest tie downs you will ever own. It is so simple to use, loop the rope around your load bring the loose end to the NO KNOT ROPE LOK, insert the tail end into the lock and pull the rope tight, squeeze the lever down, your load is secured. To release, just lift the lever and the rope slides out freely and easily.

 

The idea for the Rope Lok came about when I had horses; I needed a way to secure the rope around the horse's necks. The need for a no knot rope-locking device that was easy to use, and would not was the main reason for the lock. It had to be easy enough for kids to use as well as be strong. Then it became apparent to me that this could be used for more than just a lead for horses, this could be used to secure anything a where rope is used. (Doug Hassing)

 

Our company consists of three people, my sister Becky, my brother Doug and I, we have been working to get this going since August of 2007. We have gone from Doug's drawing to product in about seven months. The first prototype was aluminum, after looking at cost and production time we decided to take it to an Injected molding company; from there it was refined and is the product that we have today. The No Knot Rope Lok is 100% Made in the USA, assembled right here in Michigan. We have a Global Patent Pending on our product and our logo is a registered trademark. In the few months following our first production run, we started selling the No Knot Rope Lok in about 13 different stores in the Kalamazoo area, with Doug going door to door selling it.

 

May 2008 there was a article in the local paper about our new business and how Rope Lok came about, the article talked about how Doug came up with the idea and how the three of us started the business. After the article came out, stores that were interested in selling the Rope Lok contacted us; a buyer from Meijer has contacted us about carrying Rope Lok in their stores. Gary Gerds from the Grabber Performance Group in Grand Rapids also contacted us; they wanted to be our distributor.

 

In June 2008, we rented a booth at the INPEX Inventors show in Pittsburgh, PA. The INPEX show is the largest of its kind for show casing new products, gadgets, tools and just about anything that is invented. We entered the No Knot Rope Lok in two categories the first was in the Recreational category and the other was in the Hardware & Tools category. After the four-day show, they had a banquet and handed out the awards. By the end of the night, we had won a Gold Medal in Recreation and Silver Medal in Hardware & Tools. The show was a success, there were distributors, manufacturers and retailers who all thought that this was a great idea.

 

After a successful show out in Pittsburgh and knowing we had a great product that consumers would purchase, on July 14, 2008 we met with the management of Grabber and decided to sign an exclusive distribution with them. They have distribution all over the US and the world, and that is what we needed to help our company grow.

 

After meeting with the team from GRABBER, and feeling comfortable with everyone we spoke with, we felt they were the right company for the distribution of our Rope Lok. Teaming up with GRABBER has afforded us to expand our product into areas that on our own would have taken us 5 years or more. GRABBER has the infrastructure and market share that will help Rope Lok grow, and be competitive in the market place for years to come. (Jay Hassing)

 

We have been with Grabber for eight months now and things are looking great, we have been able to get our Rope Lok into around 70 stores in 25 states along with Australia and New Zealand. Starting in March all of the Meijer's stores are now handling the No Knot Rope Lok in the automotive dept. This year should be a good year for us, we have been to a number of trade shows with Grabber and the response has been great. We have had a number of articles written about Rope Lok in different magazines, and trade show papers.

 

After a few orders came in, we started looking for a larger building. We wanted to stay in the Otsego or Plainwell area, but found nothing in Otsego. After Emilie from the city of Plainwell contacted us with a list of buildings, we found what we needed in the Industrial Park. We moved to our new location on March 24th 2009. We have office, warehouse area, and are ready to continue our growth here in Plainwell.

 

Rope Lok LLC. 300 N Acorn Plainwell, MI 49080 Ph 1.877.685.9133 / Fax 1.269.685.9733 / www.ropelok.com / http://ropelok.blogspot.com/