Manitowoc’s Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry continues to experience growth, both in sales and size.
The outer shell of a nearly 50,000 square foot, $$4.8 million addition has been constructed at 838 South 16th Street, and, the general contractor is A.C.E. Building Service.
Work crews plan to pour the concrete flooring for the massive structure at the corner of South 16th and Clark this week.
Following a tour of the plant, Seehafer News spoke with Joe Brown, WAF’s Vice-President of Strategy and he told us they’re positioning themselves for the future.
“Over the past three years, Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry has gone from about $100 million, $120 million in sales to almost $190 million in sales,” he revealed. “So as we continue to grow, we need to add capacity. We decided that if we were going to add capacity, we wanted to do it here in Manitowoc, versus one of our other campuses that we have in either Indiana or in Minnesota.”
Brown said they decided to stay local because they know they have a very good community to pull workers from.
The company’s Human Resources Director, Michelle Szymik said their success can be traced to the longevity of the company and it being family owned.
“The people are amazing,” she said. “We have a lot of people who are tenured, and they care about each other, and work well together. It’s really exciting to come to work each day and see it.”
Marcos Alfaro, Secretary-Treasurer of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, is a former union representative for over 25 years at the foundry and he praised the company and its relationship with the three unions there.
He told Seehafer News, “We like it that they are creating jobs and that we can work together for the future.”
Brown anticipates Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry adding another 60-to-70 jobs once the addition is completed.
Of the Fortune 100 companies across the U.S., he said among their top 10 customers they supply 3 of them, including Caterpillar.
