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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Industrial Welding Firm, WFSI, Expands Its Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, Manufacturing Facility

08/22/2013
Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, welding company WFSI, Inc. plans to expand its facility and add 32 new positions, as a result of a $200,000 loan to increase its welding and manufacturing business from the state’s Investment Fund.

Founded in 1983 in Sauk Rapids, a city northwest of Minneapolis, WFSI is nationally recognized in the critical welding industry with a focus on the oil and gas, energy and military markets. The company recently relocated from a 14,000 sq. ft. facility to the former Komo Machine location on Industrial Boulevard in Sauk Rapids. The larger 145,000 sq. ft. facility will allow the company to produce larger products, such as pressure vessels used in the oil industry.

According to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, funding was awarded under the agency’s Minnesota Investment Fund, a resource for companies to add new workers and retain high-quality jobs statewide. WFSI, Inc. currently employs about 45 workers at its facility and plans to retain the additional positions over the next two years.

“This funding will help us at WFSI acquire major pieces of equipment which will significantly increase the capacity, capability, and quality of the WFSI Inc output,” said WFSI Chief Financial Officer Allan Beyer. “We also expect to create a business environment that will attract talented people to our company and the St. Cloud region.”

“This funding package will have an important impact on the economy and contribute to regional job growth,” said Commissioner Katie Clark Sieben. “Employment for welders in Central Minnesota is on the upswing as manufacturing activity in the area rebounds from the Great Recession, and that is good news for exceptional manufacturing employers like WFSI.”

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