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NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 11, 2006
Contact Person:
Tom McMahon
Barker Company, Ltd has
announced plans to expand its manufacturing capabilities in
Centerville
,
Iowa
.
Pat McMahon
, President stated Barker has signed an agreement to purchase an existing
manufacturing facility in
Centerville
. Barker expects to be
occupying the new facility by mid August.
“During the spring of this year we introduced a new
line of spherically curved specialty display cases.
The market’s reaction to this new line has been strong.
In addition, our customer base has been very aggressive in building
new retail stores and remodeling existing stores in order to better
compete for customers. As
a result, we needed to purchase an existing facility to increase our
capacity immediately” stated McMahon.
The new production facility will add 100,000 square
feet and bring Barker’s total facilities to approximately 300,000 square
feet between the
Centerville
and Keosauqua facilities. McMahon
also noted Barker expects to have added 85 employees by mid August
bringing the company’s total employment to 550. In
addition, the company plans to invest approximately $4 million in the
expansion.
Dick
Dietzman,
Centerville
Plant Manager stated “the new facility will incorporate all the the
manufacturing processes we currently utilize in our existing
Centerville
facility on
O’Briant Street
. We have already begun the
hiring and training processes so we can hit the ground running when the
retrofit of the former Young Radiator building is complete.”
Barker
Company is a family owned company dedicated to producing quality, custom,
display merchandisers for the grocery, convenience store, and food service
industries.
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