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FABRICATING SPECIALISTS MOVING FORWARD

Thursday, October 30th, 2008 -- 11:31 AM

Despite an iffy economy, the leaders of a new manufacturing venture in Neillsville say things are moving full-speed ahead.

We talked with Jim Grunewald of Fabricating Specialists and Bob Kamphuis of parent company Mayville Engineering Wednesday.

"We're in the process of setting up our machinery and equipment," Grunewald explained, "We have most of that in place. We have production tooling on order. We hope to start doing some prototype work in November, and get into some limited production work in early December."

They've already hired one full-time employee, but plan to make more hires beginning in December, Grunewald said.

The business will do tube-bending work at their new facility in the Leeson South building.

It hasn?t been that long ago that we talked with company leaders, but in that short time, the economy has gone from bad to worse.

Kamphuis says it's not impacting the start-up.

"Mayville Engineering is in a very good credit position. We have the resources with our banking partners to do the things we need to do to grow in any marketplace," Kamphuis says.

"Believe it or not, even though you pick up the newspapers and everyone is singing gloom and doom, there are a lot of great opportunities out there."

The city of Neillsville and the Listeman Foundation teamed up to provide Fabricating Specialists with a $275,000 start-up grant that requires them to hire 62 workers within three years and keep those workers for five years.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.