Glenwood company signs Letter of Intent to purchase sprayer, applicator manufacturer
A Glenwood, Minnesota-headquartered company, WASP Inc., has signed a Letter of Intent to purchase Fast Manufacturing, based in Windom, with a parts facility in Mountain Lake and a store and office in Gilman, Illinois.
According to the WASP Inc. website, the company began as Watkins Aircraft Support Products in 1979, named for its founder, Jim Watkins. During its first decade in business, the company nearly doubled in size every year. They provide ground support equipment for the airplane industry, including cargo and container dollies, baggage carts, movable stairs, racks, sort platforms, belt loaders, tire carts and mobile scissors lifts. Additionally, they have an extensive parts production division.
That growth was due to the diversification of the products they manufacture. In 1985, a package conveyor line was added, and in 2002, the company began to build trailers for the United States military. Their reach is broad, shipping products to 65 countries.
Currently Dane Anderson is the company’s president and CEO (Chief Executive Officer), and DeWayne Nelson is the vice-president.
In addition to their Glenwood location, they have a second Midwest plant, located in Falls City, Nebraska.
More than 350 employees – who work shifts covering seven days a week – own the company. The manufacturer features full-time inspectors at each location, 15 engineers with an accrued 200 years of experience, 70 welders certified by the American Welding Society, currently 300,000 square feet of manufacturing space, specialized large-format cutters, brakes, saws and powder coat paint booths and is ISO 9001:2008 certified.
Fast Manufacturing was founded 25-years-ago, in 1990, on a farmsite west of Mountain Lake by Verlyn Fast, a Bingham Lake farmer seeking to increase the productivity of his own operations. In June 2014, the company opened its new 144,000 square foot Windom location in the North Windom Industrial Park on Highway #71 North, keeping its Mountain Lake facility for parts.
Today, Fast produces high-quality sprayer and liquid fertilizer applicator equipment. Over 75% of Fast employees – welders, fabricators, assemblers, and painters are skilled craftsmen – are, or have been, directly involved in farming operations.
Their manufacturing facility utilizes flat laser tables, a tube laser, a robotic welding cell, multiple press brakes, and a state of the art powder coat paint system. The new Windom production facility also includes an automated, five-stage wash and powder coat paint system.
