An acquisition involving two Kewanee companies that build trailers has preserved seven manufacturing jobs in the city.
While that’s good news, there’s also this: The acquisition could lead to more jobs being created here in the next few months.
MTM Trailers, which since 2016 has built high-performance end-dump trailers in the former Hyster plant on Kentville Road, has completed the acquisition of Four Degree Trailers.
MTM will produce Four Degree’s three models: The Lift-A-Load, Lo-Riser and Wing Jack trailers.
The seven Four Degree employees now work for MTM. One of them, supervisor Brad Lain, said he was “really glad” his company had been acquired by MTM. Lain said he had feared the company would be sold to an out-of-town (or even out-of-state) company.
Four Degree has its roots in the Advanced Metalworking company, which had a manufacturing plant on Route 78 just south of Kewanee.
When Advanced Metalworking ceased operations in the early 2021, they sold the trailer business to Rhino Tool, which manufactured the trailers until last year. Lain said he and his co-workers produced about 70 trailers a year, which were sold throughout the U.S. and to the military.
Last year Four Degree was sold to another company, which in turn is selling the business to MTM.
MTM has grown over the years to where the company now has about 135 employees. And M. J. Leman, MTM’s chief executive officer, said, “We’re hoping to grow even larger.”
Adding the Four Degree product line should help. Leman pointed out that MTM’s sales team works with buyers throughout the United States, which should substantially increase the market for the Four Degree trailers.
MTM officials hope to start production of Four Degree trailers within the next couple of weeks.
James Hunt, MTM’s product director, said the company will set up a production line for the new products, which will compliment MTM’s existing line.
“We’ve grown by leaps and bounds” since 2016, Hunt said. The biggest growth, he said, has been in the past four or five years.
Even though production has grown, there’s plenty of space in the Kentville Road plant for even more production, he said.
Hunt said he’s happy that Four Degree is “another locally-owned and operated business that we’ve kept in the community.” He’s confident that there will be a large demand for Four Degree’s products “because there’s really nothing built like them” by any competitor.
