Felling Trailers hosts U.S. senator
Felling Trailers hosted Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar during her recent central Minnesota manufacturing road trip. She spoke to the company’s ownership and management about issues such as health care and workforce shortages that manufacturers are facing. During Klobuchar’s visit, she spoke about the measures being taken at the federal level to strengthen local workforces.
Felling Trailers is building relationships with area high schools and colleges to introduce modern manufacturing to students and expose them to the career opportunities that exist. Along with offering tours, Felling also offers a selection of student programs: Careers in the Community provides welding training to high school juniors and seniors, Youth Welding Camp provides basic welding safety and training for elementary to junior high ages, and most recently, Felling offered a Women in Welding course. All courses are offered free of charge.
VMAC sponsors Nanaimo’s Education and Career Fair
VMAC sponsored Nanaimo’s Education and Career Fair in December. ECF is responsible for British Columbia’s largest career development fair, attracting over 10,000 attendees over five different locations each year. Students visiting the VMAC booth learned about a wide range of career paths, most notably engineering, fabrication, machining, marketing and quality control. Those specifically interested in learning more about VMAC and its in-house manufactured products were given a tour of the demo truck, equipped with various air compressor and multipower systems.
Fancher to retire from Muncie Power
Senior Vice President IT and Administration Chris Fancher retired from Muncie Power Products at the end of December. Fancher started with the company in 1978 and served in various roles including shipping and receiving clerk, bench assembler, accounting clerk/manager, internal auditor and inventory control, data processing manager, corporate controller, vice president and corporate controller, and senior vice president finance and administration. He had also served on the company’s board since 2006.
Imperial promotes Kurt Mannel to president
Kurt Mannel is the new president of Imperial Industries. Formerly the vice president of Imperial, he brings more than 27 years of septic hauling experience to the role. Prior to becoming vice president, he served as the company’s plant manager and ran his own business, Mannel’s Septic Cleaning, for more than 10 years. His experience also includes a stint as the welding instructor at Northcentral Technical College, rounding out a solutions-oriented understanding of the engineering and operation of septic hauling equipment.
