The British arms accessories manufacturer coming to Rapid City anticipates creating between 30 to 40 jobs by the end of its first year here, company official Andrea Oz said.

The business is required to create 19 jobs by the end of 2011 or a $50,000 grant to defer relocation costs will revert to a loan.

Oz, wife of company chief executive officer David Oz, was in town last week scouting locations for the TDI-Arms plant. She declined to say which property TDI is purchasing and the Pennington County Registrar of Deeds office said it had no record yet of a sale.

Oz said she never expected to be setting up business in South Dakota, but that the process has been easy, and she's been impressed by the people she's met, from economic development leaders to the workers flooding her office with resumes.

"It's the people here that have made us want to be a part of the community of South Dakota, and try to enrich the lives of the people who work for us with good salaries and benefits and good prospects," Oz said.

The company was founded about nine years ago and manufactures arms accessories out of a plant in Israel. Oz said they had severed ties with their United States distributor and were looking to move the U.S. distribution in-house somewhere in the U.S.

But they decided to move the majority of the manufacturing operation here after a conversation they had at the annual Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show and Conference last year in Florida.

There, the Ozes met Dick Williamson, CEO of Lakota Industries, an Ohio-based camouflage printer and manufacturer of bow hunting equipment that is bringing much of its manufacturing operation to Timber Lake. (See related story.)

"We told him we were bringing our distribution to the USA," Oz said. "And he said, 'Try South Dakota.' … He said the people there are second to none in terms of helping you and doing their very best to meet your expectations."

The two companies together created a new venture called TDI-Lakota Holdings. TDI will distribute the archery equipment made in Timber Lake and some of the camouflage printing work will be done in Rapid City.

Oz said Williamson was right: Rapid City and South Dakota officials were far more responsive to her inquiries and needs than their counterparts in other states she explored, including New York, Nevada, Arizona and Florida.

"I'm still waiting for information from Nevada from January," Oz said. "They've got enough on their plate, maybe, with the gambling."

The availability of buildings and the ease of driving around town also were attractive, she said. But mostly, Oz was impressed by what she perceived as a culture of honesty.

"You don't find many people that you trust," she said. "I did find people like that here in South Dakota. Very quickly I felt as if I was among my own people."

She found the mayor and governor approachable.

"In the (United Kingdom), there is no way that you would walk into a restaurant and say, 'Hi, Alan,' to the mayor," Oz said. "I like that, the fact that there is an approachability, and there is no hierarchy, because we run our business that way, too."

The company expects to start operations here in December. They started getting applications as soon as the Rapid City Journal reported TDI's arrival, Oz said. Many applicants were former employees of SCI-Sanmina, the electronics manufacturing firm that closed down this summer, and Oz said wherever the skill set fits, she will try to hire someone who is unemployed.

Because of the welcome they were given, Oz said, they are encouraging some of their own business partners to relocate to South Dakota, "as a way of repaying everything that's been done for us to make our path smooth."

Contact Barbara Soderlin at 394-8417 or at barbara.soderlin@rapidcityjournal.com.