Sheldon, Iowa — Maintainer Corporation has opened its new facility, and is producing products there.
Maintainer spokesperson Todd Karolczak gives us an update.
(As said:) “Our new 28,800-square-foot facility — we’re calling it Maintainer South — it’s just south of the main plant. We started — the first truck cranked out of there in January and it’s been a little bit of a slow start as we got new equipment, and slowly move people over there. We’re now running all lines over there. We’re producing some of our larger trucks for the railroad industry, for our lube trucks, but it’s not totally operating at a hundred percent yet, mainly because of this COVID-19 thing. We’ve got people that are, you know, sick. So we’re doing the protective thing and sending them home. We’ve got suppliers that aren’t operating at full capacity. So sometimes it’s the components we’re waiting for. So we’re still hoping that we can get this thing up and running at top efficiency, but it probably won’t be until the summer.”
Karolczak tells us that if anyone has lost their job due to COVID-19 or if you’re just looking for employment, they’ve got an opportunity for you.
(As said:) “We’re ready to crank this up. But in fact, we could use some more employees. So if anyone’s looking for a job out there Maintainer is hiring, because we’d love to get this thing up and running. Maintainer was considered an essential business. I know there wasn’t a really a stay-at-home order in Iowa. But even if there was Maintainer would be up and running because we produce trucks for the railroad industry, we also produce trucks for the construction industry and those are considered essential so we’re up and running. We need people to keep this place running and our order board is full so we’d love to get this thing running at top efficiency. “
He tells us an open house is still in the works as well, when they get the facility running as designed. Maintainer officials say the new facility, which is located on the site previously occupied by RV Central, should increase Maintainer’s production capacity by about 35-percent.
