On July 19th, our team here at Stern kicked off a 10,000-square foot building addition at our facility in Aitkin, Minnesota. This expansion, doubled the size of the plant, and will increase the work force that is currently there, by over 50%.
The plant in Aitkin is currently used to produce our 4’’ through 12’’ gate valves, and the new building will play host to our current 14’’ through 24’’ gate valve production, that we have been manufacturing at our Staples facility. This move of product will free up space at our main plant for new projects, and allow us the opportunity to produce even larger gate valves at the Aitkin facility, due to the higher ceilings, and increased work space for our overhead cranes that are needed to move the larger valves. This also frees up some of our workforce in Staples to work on several new projects that we have won.
Although the building project was a little slow getting started due to some logistics, regarding the property and building ownership, we got things rolling as quick as we could in late August. Hammers Construction, based in Perham has done a great job at getting the project designed, and completed as efficiently as possible.
With the completion of this project, we are excited to begin reorganizing the two facilities, and have the opportunity, to bring more work to the Aitkin plant, as well as have added space for incoming projects in Staples.