Manitowoc Dedicates New Shady Grove Facility

April 1, 2008 • Manitowoc celebrated the newest addition to its Shady Grove, Pa., campus Monday, with the dedication of a new multimillion-dollar renovation and expansion project that will house aftermarket support operations, according to reports by the Public Opinion.

The expansion emphasizes the company's plans for growth, both domestically and abroad. "We have capacity expansion projects all over the world," said Glen Tellock, president and CEO of the Manitowoc, Wis-based company. "They are some pretty substantial expansions."

 

Manitowoc has recently expanded its global presence. The Shady Grove project follows the company's announcement of a joint venture to manufacture cranes in China. Last year, the company acquired a crane maker in India.

 

According to a report in The Herald-Mail, Manitowoc's expansion domestically and abroad aims to take advantage of exchange rates and other factors to remain competitive. Tellock said the company can hedge its currency by manufacturing both in the United States and in Europe and Asia.

 

Manitowoc also is expanding production of rough-terrain cranes at Shady Grove and its boom shop, assembling booms from kits, according to the report.

 

The new 37,000-square-foot Manitowoc Crane Care building houses technical support and doubles the available space for employee training, according to Public Opinion. The building is also home to Manitowoc Crane Care's technical publication department, which publishes thousands of manuals and technical publications and translates them into more than a dozen languages.

 

The new building dedicated Monday employs 102 of the roughly 1,800 employed at the facility.

 

The newest building in Shady Grove will make operations more efficient by bringing together offices under one roof, said Scott Keckler, director of customer support.

 

"That's really important because the training people can work with the service guys and can be aware of what's going on in the field. Before, they were only a couple hundred yards away, but now they're face to face and they can understand the level of priority a lot better," Keckler said.

 

With the new training facilities, Manitowoc Crane Care expects to train more than 1,300 employees in Shady Grove this year.

 

The space formerly occupied by aftermarket support staff will be renovated and converted into other uses, said John Bittner of Manitowoc Crane Care.

Source: Public Opinion and The Herald-Mail