Edgetech, a manufacturer of rubber seals for thermo-pane windows, doubled its Cambridge manufacturing capacity last year with additional equipment and employees.

Colgate-Palmolive, also in Cambridge, completed its $24 million liquid detergent expansion project in June 1996; more than 40 new full-time positions were added.

Last March, Alpha Enterprises built a new plant to make plastic cases for video tapes, compact disks and cassette tapes. Company officials said skilled labor, a well-developed infrastructure, a progressive business climate and a comprehensive incentive package were among the reasons Canton was awarded the $10 million investment that brought 200 new jobs to the community.

Outside of Cleveland, Drayer Business Services, a computer supplier, has doubled the size of its Strongsville plant to 45,000 square feet; the $2 million project will add 50 people to its work force. Also in Strongsville, Hy-Level Screw Products has added 38,000 square feet to its facility at a cost of about $5.4 million; 22 jobs were added.

Universal Electronics, maker of "One For All" remote controls, spent $3.6 million to expand its Twinsburg facility and consolidate operations from Florida and Kent, Ohio. The expansions also allowed the company to move manufacturing from Asia to the Twinsburg plant. Universal's inventive package included a 55 percent, seven-year tax credit from the Ohio Job Creation Tax Credit Authority.

National distributors make up one of the largest growing industries in Ohio.

The reason is quite simple: Ohio has an awesome highway system that allows companies one-day access by road to half of the U.S. population and manufacturing capacity.

Interstate 80 runs through the northern part of Ohio, connecting New York to San Francisco. Across southern Ohio runs I-70, which crosses the country from Baltimore to the Mineral Mountains in Utah and then turns south to Los Angeles as I-15. Both highways intersect I-77 in the eastern and I-

75 on the western sides of the state.

Access to eastern markets was appealing to executives at Medford, Ore.,-based Bear Creek Corp. The parent company of Harry and David and Jackson & Perkins gift basket direct marketers plans to have a $11.5 million, 325,000 square foot facility running and staffed with 600 employees by this August. The center in Hebron will service accounts and fill orders for the eastern United States.

Other companies with distribution centers in Ohio include Spiegel/Eddie Bauer (1,800 employees, 1.5 million square feet) in Columbus, L.G. Cook Distributors (150 workers, 200,000 square feet) in West Carrollton, Victoria's Secret Catalogue (1,600 jobs, 90,000 square feet) in Kettering, Goodyear (200,000 square feet) in Obetz, and Sears Roebuck & Co. (300,000 square foot appliance distribution expansion) in Columbus.

In addition to the booming distribution industry, the state
has attracted a number of service centers.

In February 1996, Ashland Chemical began a $15 million expansion project to add 129,000 square feet and 350 jobs to its Dublin customer service and purchasing center. To assist with the project, the state gave

Ashland $100,000 for training and a 65 percent/10-year jobs tax credit.

Last spring, Chase Manhattan Mortgage Corp. announced it would build a 240,000 square foot service center in northeast Columbus. The $35 million facility, which will be completed by 1998, will create 600 new jobs and retain 1,000 during the next few years.

"These back-office operations are representative of what's going on in central Ohio," said Don Kazynski, vice president of economic development for the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce.

Proximity to Port Columbus, highway access, cooperation among the private and public sectors, and incentives played into its site selection, according to Edward D. Miller, president of the New York-based company. Chase's incentive package included a 75 percent tax credit for 10 years from the Ohio Job Creation Tax Credit Authority, a $500,000 infrastructure improvement grant and $250,000 for job training.

Novus Services, the operating company for Discover Card, is building a $100 million facility in New Albany and will employ up to 4,000 people. To help secure the 400,000 square foot project, local officials agreed to make road and sewer improvements, at a cost of nearly $8.5 million.

Following Aetna and U.S. Healthcare's merger and restructuring last summer, the managed health care provider and insurer awarded a $1 million expansion project to Columbus. An Aetna U.S. Healthcare spokesman identified the large concentration of customers, a skilled work force and high efficiency levels as key to its decision to add 600 area jobs and 100,000 square feet to its existing facility.

CUC International of Stamford, Conn., hired an additional 1,000 employees to staff its Westerville Comp-U-Card membership-based customer service center last year.

This spring, LCI International will begin leasing a 156,000 square foot building in Dublin for its central Ohio operations. The McLean, Va.,-based long distance carrier plans to add up to 1,000 jobs over the next three years.

-- Kerrie L. Bertz