SIDNEY — The Elite Enclosure Co., of Sidney, has a new owner.

Mike Trempe, of New Albany, completed the purchase of the $6 million company from its founders, Doug and Sherry Pottorf, of rural Sidney, in late September.

Elite Enclosure fabricates material-handling equipment for the automotive industry. The plant, at 2349 Industrial Drive, employs 35 people.

The Pottorfs started the business in 1994 in Fort Loramie and moved operations to Sidney in 2011. They had been looking for the right buyer, they said, for four years.

“We wanted someone who would take care of our people,” Sherry said. “Some of them have been with us since the beginning.”

That beginning came when Doug, after a career in the corporate world, found himself suddenly unemployed.

“My wife and I were in the music business. We met in a band. So the name, Elite Enclosure, was coined from a home project I used to do. We started making cases for electric music equipment,” Doug said. A friend saw that they were having trouble getting the business off the ground and suggested they consider material handling. The friend worked for Ford in Sharonville and gave them an entry to sales there.

After that, Doug said, the business took off.

“I never really had to hire a salesman,” he noted. “We always thought, ‘Do a good job and it will come back to you.’” Elite Enclosure now numbers Ford and Honda among its major clients.

Trempe had worked for the last 13 years for the Longaberger Co., first as vice president of operations and, for the last 15 months of his tenure there, as president and chief operating officer.

“Longaberger sold to a private equity firm in 2013,” Trempe said. “Their direction and mine were a little different, and I, like Doug, found myself unemployed. I had always dreamed of owning my own facility. When Doug and I shared our stories, they mirrored each other. I felt like I was talking to myself.”

The Pottorfs and Trempe found each other through a business broker.

“We had a lot of people come through who didn’t feel right,” Doug said. “Mike came through and it felt good.”

Trempe was attracted to Elite Enclosure because of the solid foundation Sherry and Doug had created, the strength of the leadership team and the quality of the workforce. He has spent his first three months on the job observing and meeting customers, grateful that Sherry will remain on the staff as controller and that Doug, who officially retired when Trempe came aboard, is always available to answer questions.

“The key for me is not to mess everything up that Doug has made stable,” Trempe said. “The goal is to support the customers we have and looking to see if we can grow into the customer base that is there. I want to grow the business and create more jobs in the Sidney area. But you can sometimes grow into your own failure. So we want to make sure growth is planned.”

The transition from leading the 8,000-employee basket maker to the tiny-by-comparison Sidney firm has not been without its surprises. At the end of Trempe’s first day, Doug walked him through the building to show him what needed to be shut down and locked up for the night.

“The only thing I ever locked at Longaberger was my office,” Trempe laughed. “Coming from a big organization like Longaberger — many people were doing (the) many functions. What I have found in the small-business world is — that’s you. The all-encompassing everything is your responsibility now. I knew that, but I didn’t.”

While the differences between large and small companies may occasionally surprise Trempe, the change from big city Columbus to much smaller Sidney does not.

“I’m originally from Urbana. I went to Graham High School. Moving to the big city and coming back to a small town has been refreshing. The workforce is phenomenal. I’d put this group of workers up against anyone in the area. (I like) getting back to my roots and working with people who believe in putting in a hard day’s work. You don’t find that everywhere.”

For his part, having Trempe take the reins of his business has eased retirement anxiety for Doug.

“We’re extremely pleased that we found Mike and Mike found us,” he said. “That was our greatest fear, that we’d not find someone who’d appreciate what we’ve built here and grow it to the next level. It’s exciting for both of us.”

In retirement, Doug said he’s fantasized about taking up his bass guitar to look for a band again. He enjoys flying remote control planes and “my honey-do list is about two years old,” he laughed.