Jeremy Ratliff
Reporter
Last month, Premier Companies-a west side dual division manufactuer- kicked off their latest expansion endeavor, consisting of the construction of a 12,00 square foot powder coating facility.
Initially established in 2000, as Premier Touchless Drying Systems located at 107 E. 1st Street, the company consisted of just three staff members. Following relocation in 2004 to it’s present location at 2210 Heldt Street, Premier Touchless Drying Systems occupied two facilities on grounds. Now fourteen years later, Premier has expanded to include a total of five-12,000 square foot facilities, 27 additional employees and the addition of a Precision Laser Cutting division.
According to Premier Operations Manager Mike VanDerGeest, the current expansion project is expected to be completed and ready for operation by July 1. The expansion and associated equipment upgrade, will further expand the Laser Cutting Division’s ability to efficiently fulfill customer demand, while also providing a more comfortable working environment for employees.
“Along with the construction of our new powder coating facility, we will be upgrading from our current ‘batch system’ to an overhead conveyor system. The upgrade will help us to keep pace with customer demand, minimize turnaround times for customer orders, while also keeping customer costs down. We are very excited for what the expansion will mean for our company,”
In addition, the expansion is expected to lead to ten additional jobs; a four-person second shift for precision laser cutting and a six-person powder coating crew.
Currently Premier Touchless Drying Systems serves customers worldwide with the manufacturing of vacuums and dryers for the car wash industry. Precision Laser Cutting currently serves customers around the Midwestern US via metal fabrication and powder coating, as well as various custom work such as signage, banners and etching.