GEORGE, Iowa | Nearly a year ago, Dur-A-Lift completed an expansion that more than doubled the Northwest Iowa manufacturer’s space and put all of its operations under a single roof.
The new 26,000-square-foot plant allows Dur-A-Lift workers to install telescoping and articulating aerial lifts on as many as five or six vehicles at a time, allowing the company to keep pace with robust growth for its products.
“Dur-A-Lift has grown in terms of market share, product line and necessary production capacity,” Larry Kruse, president of Diversified Technologies Inc., the parent company for Dur-A-Lift, said in a statement prior to ground-breaking for the project. “To support this growth, we’ve been placing increasing pressure on the manufacturing capacity of Dur-A-Lift’s largest supplier, sister company Sudenga Industries. This new facility will allow us to continue Dur-A-Lift’s growth pace, while relieving pressure from an equally busy Sudenga division.”
Now, another project is nearing completion at the company’s sprawling campus on the outskirts of the small Lyon County town of George. Dur-A-Lift’s former space has been remodeled to create additional office, assembly and warehouse space for Sudenga, said vice president of marketing Greg VerSteeg.
Sudenga, the larger of the two divisions, manufactures bulk material handling and processing equipment for the ag industry, such as grain augers and conveyors and feed trucks and trailers.
RICH, AG HISTORY
For decades, agriculture was the focal point of the Northwest Iowa business, which traces its roots to German immigrant Folkert Sudenga, who opened a blacksmith shop in the then-frontier town of George in 1888.
Folkert was succeeded in the family business by his sons Phillip and George, and Phillip’s sons Floyd and Jay, who transitioned the George Iron and Woodworks into a full-fledged manufacturer around 1946. The company came to be known as Sudenga Industries after being incorporated in 1962.
In 1975, the company was purchased from the Sudenga family by five key employees.
After the farm crisis struck in the early 1980s, Sudenga Industries lost its core business almost overnight.
“We needed to diversify as a survival tactic,” VerSteeg said in an interview last year.
In 1988, Sudenga acquired the assets of Darnell Engineering, a small aerial lift company in Emmetsburg, Iowa. After operating the Dur-A-Lift factory in Emmetsburg for a few years, the company moved the operations to Sudenga’s 40-acre campus, a mile northeast of George.
The campus is so expansive that at one time it even boasted its own runway so farmers could fly in to pick out a new grain auger, VerSteeg said.
Diversified Technologies Inc., or DTI for short, was formed in the 1980s to consolidate Dur-A-Lift, Sudenga and a third division, Ranger All-Season, under one corporate umbrella.
Ranger All-Season supplies electric scooters to customers that include health care providers, retail stores, theme parks and rental equipment firms.
Over the years, DTI has built a series of metal structures to increase its manufacturing space, which now totals more than 226,000 square feet. The space is equipped with high-tech equipment and machinery, such as robotic welders and press brakes.
The Dur-A-Lift operations, which had been spread out in various buildings, are now consolidated in the new 26,000-square-foot manufacturing facility.
“Efficiency-wise, having everything under one roof is huge,” VerSteeg said.
With the national economy rebounding from the recession that hit in late 2008, orders for Dur-A-Lift products have been growing at a rapid clip.
Dur-A-Lift offers telescoping and articulating aerial lifts that can be mounted on the flatbed of a truck or the top of a paneled van.
The company’s products are sold throughout the United States and in countries as far away as Australia for a diverse customer base that ranges from utilities and telecoms, to local municipalities and state transportation departments, to outdoor sign companies and rental equipment firms.
The larger Northwest Iowa plant offers enough space to install lifts on twice as many vehicles as in the past. Other lifts are shipped to the Dur-A-Lift distributors around the country and world.
TOP EMPLOYER
Last year’s Dur-A-Lift expansion is the largest in the company’s history. DTI executives considered moving the Dur-A-Lift manufacturing to another location, including a site across the border in South Dakota, VerSteeg said. But they ultimately decided the proximity to the Sudenga operations was too valuable of an asset to lose, with employees of the two divisions ready to pitch in to help out each other when needed.
Until a few years ago, DTI was easily the largest employer in Lyon County. Now it’s second, behind only the Grand Falls Casino Resort, which opened in 2011 with about 700 workers near the town of Larchwood.
Unemployment in Lyon County has been the lowest among Iowa’s 99 counties for years. That’s forced DTI to look some distance away to fill all of its skilled jobs, such as welders and machine operators.
Workers commute to George, pop. 1,080, from the Sioux Falls area, southwest Minnesota and neighboring Northwest Iowa counties, with some driving an hour or more each way.
VerSteeg said the company historically has had low turnover, a testament to the competitive pay and benefits the company offers, as well as how it treats its workforce.
As of a few years ago, one out of every four employees had put in 20 years or more with the company.
