How $900,000 in rail grants will spur two Wrightstown manufacturers to create 120 new jobs
WRIGHTSTOWN - Grants worth $900,000 will enable two manufacturing companies to create more than 120 new jobs and expand their businesses.
Drexel Building Supply LLC and Alliance Plastics Inc. received Transportation Economic Assistance grants from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to connect to rail lines, potentially as soon as summer 2023. Drexel received $500,000 and Alliance $400,000.
The companies expect realize a variety of benefits from the connection to an existing Canadian National (CN) railroad line located south of Broadway Street, including energy savings, more efficient operations, fewer semi-truck deliveries and the chance to introduce new product lines.
"It's beneficial to us in many ways. We can bring in more material, reduce our costs, save energy and save gas," said Joel Fleschman, Drexel's president. "Our quality will go up, our price will go down, we'll save energy."
The two companies will renovate and extend rail spurs to connect into the existing CN rail line located south of Broadway Street that serves parts of the Wrightstown Industrial Park.
The projects will also set the stage for manufacturers and the village to pursue additional grants for rail extensions by extending rail north across Broadway Street and further into the rapidly growing Wrightstown Industrial Park, according to Travis Coenen, the village's manager.
"This project, for its intended purpose, supplies rail to Alliance and Drexel, but it also opens the door to more rail capacity in our industrial park," Coenen said. "There's more to come as we move forward and keep developing."
Drexel adds robotic truss production, and jobs, in building market
Drexel provides building materials and services to professional contractors and home owners alike from eight locations in Wisconsin. Many of the company's other sites already have rail access; the TEA grant will add a 4,175-foot rail spur to the company's Wrightstown site.
For about five yeas, Fleischman said the company had wanted to add a robotic truss production line. He said the rail spur grant means Drexel can bring in and store larger loads of lumber necessary to add the robotic truss line in Wrightstown.
Trusses are roof and ceiling supports in homes and buildings. Their production will be fully automated, but that doesn't mean anyone at Drexel will lose their jobs in a transition. The company expects the project will enable it to retain 50 current employees and create another 50 new jobs.
"It's a one-of-a-kind plant," Fleischman said. "It's very exciting for us. It will be a win for Drexel, builders and their customers."
Expanding production without the truck deliveries
It was the potential for rail access that spurred Alliance Plastics to build a new facility on Quality Court, its second in northeast Wisconsin, said Troy Wolf, Alliance's president. Alliance already operates plants in Green Bay, as well as in South Carolina, Texas and Nevada.
The Wrightstown facility uses resin to produce stretch film used to wrap pallets of goods and will create 79 new jobs. The company expects its new 1,384-foot rail spur to be completed by June 2023. When done, Wolf said it will enable Alliance to significantly cut down on truck deliveries and store more raw materials on site.
"We can take one rail car versus four or five over-the-road trucks," Wolf said. "This division, this growth, was dependent on us getting the (rail) spur. It allows us to invest a bit heavier into this facility."
A big win for Wrightstown
"New rail spurs for these two companies will facilitate economic development and provide important connections to markets across the nation as well as Canada," said WisDOT Secretary Craig Thompson in a media release.
Coenen said Wrightstown has received a couple of TEA grants prior to this one. He said the program will help extend rail into an area of the village rapidly filling in with industrial and manufacturing facilities. He said the village will partner with employers that want rail access to extend it further beyond Poplar Street as-needed.
"This rail is going to open up more doors in our industrial corridor," he said. "And if we bring in businesses and take truck traffic out of the corridor, that's a big win for the village."
Since 1987, the TEA program has provided grants to manufacturers, suppliers and other key businesses to extend and improve multimodal access to industrial sites. In northeastern Wisconsin, Oshkosh Corp., Green Bay Packaging, K & K Warehousing, Procter & Gamble and Air Wisconsin have all used TEA awards to improve rail, port and air access, according to WisDOT.
Contact Jeff Bollier at (920) 431-8387 or jbollier@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffBollier.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Rail spurs will help two Wrightstown manufacturers create 120 new jobs
