Nail Jack Tools, an Idaho-based company, is moving forward with plans to use the former Irwin Tools Vise-Grip factory in DeWitt, possibly with help from someone to share the plant.

Three-hundred and thirty people lost their jobs in October of 2008 when Newell-Rubbermaid closed Irwin Tools. All Vise-Grip manufacturing was moved to China to save on production costs.

Michael Foley, co-owner of Nail Jack Tools, said he hopes to bring those jobs back by reopening the DeWitt plant.

The former Vise-Grip plant facility is 376,000 square feet -- 316,000 square feet of manufacturing and 60,000 square feet of office space.

Currently, Nail Jack Tools is meeting with other groups and businesses interested in the building.

"We feel that, because of the economy and with the cost of operating a factory of that size, we need Nail Jack and one other to share in the purchase and expenses," he said.

Foley, a graduate of Concordia College in Seward and former student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and his brother, Nick, a UNL graduate, now an attorney in Dallas, own Nail Jack Tools with other investors.

Nail Jack Tools manufactures the Nail Jack, a tool used to grip and pull any nail or staple in any condition.

Foley said in a few years post-purchase, he hopes to have the amount of jobs back to what they were before to the Vise-Grip closing.

"Because of the expense of start-up, our goal is to have 200 jobs back by the end of two to three years," Foley said. "To not be able to do that would be surprising."

Foley also said that his patent-protected product should bring a large market world-wide.

"There's a chance that the demand around the world will be big enough to make this place cook again."

For 84 years, Vise-Grip tools were manufactured in DeWitt, a town of about 600 in Saline County. At its peak, the plant employed more than 500 workers.

DeWitt Mayor Randy Badman said that a plant opening in DeWitt will only help DeWitt and its surrounding areas.

"I think it's great," he said. "It'll help the whole area out. Not just DeWitt, but the surrounding area, Tri-County schools, the tax base, property evaluations."

Many of those workers in the DeWitt area are still looking for work, Badman said.