Prairie Industries considers expansion
By Correne Martin
The contract packaging and assembly service company, Prairie Industries, Inc., is expanding and researching the possibility of opening a third manufacturing plant in Lansing, Iowa. This would be in addition to the two plants presently located on the north and south ends of Prairie du Chien.
A post to Prairie Industries’ Facebook page last Wednesday, Feb. 15, notified the public of a job fair the company has scheduled on Monday, Feb. 27, from 4 to 7 p.m., and on Tuesday, Feb. 28, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the former Blumenthal Lansing Company button factory, 1929 Main St., Lansing. Full-time positions available include general labor, machine operators, shipping/receiving clerks, quality technicians and a supervisor.
Positions for a maintenance technician, lead workers and general laborers were published in the Courier Press as recently as last week.
The exact number of positions available has not provided by the company.
However, according to Lansing Mayor Mike Brennan’s recent Facebook post, Prairie Industries has been “negotiating pretty seriously for the Lansing Company Building....They are looking to possibly bring in 60-plus jobs.”
“We’re not ready to provide any further information at this point,” Prairie Industries North Plant Manager Tina Stoeffler said. “We’re just testing the supposed labor market in the Lansing area.”
Brennan noted, the company is going to gauge workforce potential based on attendance at the job fair.
Prairie Industries was established nearly 23 years ago, on April 15, 1994. Jim Hutchison began the company with a workforce of eight who manually inspected packaging and provided sorting services to 3M.
In a 2014 business profile published by the Courier Press, Prairie Industries’ two Prairie du Chien plants employed a core workforce of about 220, plus 50 to 60 summer temps. The original retail packaging and existing north facility, at 800 North State Street, had three additions in 1997, 2001 and 2002—bringing the warehouse up to 125,000 square feet. An additional 100,000-square-foot plant houses chemical/liquid packaging at 38023 Industrial Dr., in Bridgeport Township. That plant was purchased in 2004, opened in 2006 and expanded in 2008.
Prairie Industries is a sister company to Nu-Pak, of Boscobel, a facility which employed 375 workers in 2014. There, they specialize in ready-to-eat meat and cheese packaging.
Current owner Jim Hutchison began the company in 1994 and Jeff Panka is the president of both Prairie Industries and Nu-Pak.
For more information, visit pind.com.