Living in a materiaL worLd - Minnesota Precision Manufacturing ...

Industry Profile
Iron range resources
Premier Plastics
www.premierplasticsmn.com
Attracted to the area’s dedicated workforce, Bob
Menne relocated his business from Wyoming, Minn.,
to Hoyt Lakes, Minn., in 2003. He moved into a new
35,000-square-foot facility, hired nearly 20 employees the
first year, and hasn’t looked back since.
“The workforce up here is quite a bit different,”
Menne said. “There are good, hardworking, available
employees here. We have far less turnover now.”
After relocating to northeastern Minnesota, Premier
Plastics more than doubled its sales and growth and
expanded its capabilities to include both rotational
molding and thermoforming. The company makes
a variety of parts for the recreational and marine
industries, including seating, dash panels, cup holders,
cargo boxes and other parts.
Bob Menne has found northeastern Minnesota to be
a perfect place for Premier Plastics to manufacture
recreational and marine products.
“It’s been a good move for our business,” Menne said.
Iron Range Resources helped Premier Plastics secure
low-interest financing for its building and equipment.
Cast cOrporation
www.castcorporation.com
Tim Bungarden opened Cast Corporation in 1995
in the small town of Buhl, Minn. Five years later, he
approached Iron Range Resources for the financing
needed to purchase EDM machines, CNC machines and
other equipment. Another 5 years later, he called on the
agency again to help finance a larger building.
“We needed to expand and begin offering production
machining,” he said. “We needed a bigger facility—and
loading docks.”
Doug Felten, a Cast
Corporation machinist,
displays one of the many
automobile industry
products manufactured
at the company’s Hibbing,
Minn., facility.
In 2005, the company relocated to a 13,000-squarefoot
building in Hibbing, which was twice the size of its
old facility.
Since then, Bungarden has been working hard to
diversify the company. Cast Corporation has gone from
supplying mainly patterns to the automotive industry
to providing patterns, mold making, woodworking,
castings and machining for a variety of industries.
The company recently launched its own line of curb
ramps made to help disabled people detect the
boundary between the sidewalk and the street.
It is selling them to states and cities as well as
contractors across the United States.
“We’ve survived this recession quite well,”
Bungarden said. “We’ve been able to retain all 17
of our employees, and we hope to add another
two or three more employees this year.”
He went on to say that he expects to see
continued growth and expansions in the future.
Iron Range Resources provided two separate
loans to support the start-up and relocation of
Cast Corporation.