MARSHALLTOWN Director of Category Sales and Marketing Jon Vance, who served as the MC of Wednesday morning’s groundbreaking ceremony for the iconic local tool manufacturer’s latest expansion at the south end of its 8th Avenue campus, was full of gratitude as he recognized several of the key players who have helped to make the project a reality — including direct descendants of founders Lester and Jessie Williams and other luminaries in the company’s storied 135-year history.

“Folks, this is what it’s all about. This is American manufacturing. From Main Street to Boone Street, this is our slice of heaven. Today marks yet another investment in the same piece of property we’ve called home. And yes, you heard me correctly, we’ve been located on 8th Avenue for 123 years,” he said. “Today, we’re investing in our business, in our community and in our people, and it’s not only the people outside with us today or the people continuing to manufacture products for our customers inside. It’s all MARSHALLTOWN employees, past and present.”

That team has grown substantially in recent years as MARSHALLTOWN, long known as Marshalltown Trowel, has acquired other companies in North Carolina, Illinois and Arkansas while also growing its additional facilities in Fayetteville, Ark. A 200,000 square foot facility is currently under construction in Kansas City, Kan., and the Marshalltown headquarters will grow by about 170,000 square feet once this project is complete, marking the third expansion in Iowa in the last six years.

“Frequently, I’m asked ‘What makes MARSHALLTOWN special?’ Unfortunately for me, that question isn’t tied to product differentiation, although if anybody wants to nerd out after this event, come find me. It’s about the company, and my answer’s always the same,” Vance said. “It’s our leaders, and it’s our people. MARSHALLTOWN’s been blessed (with a) storied history — driven, thoughtful and engaged leaders and hardworking, passionate and dedicated people.”

Manufacturing, Vance said, is a difficult business, as many of the company’s competitors have come and gone over the years, but MARSHALLTOWN has survived through world wars, the Great Depression, recessions, housing crises, pandemics and, most recently, trade tensions because, in his words, “our people show up.”

As he dove into the plans for the expansion, which will include a new employee entrance and break room along with more manufacturing space, Vance again turned his focus to the company’s history and its roots in the late 19th century, when the Williams brothers started a blacksmith, automobile and bicycle repair business and sold mail-order trowels, before noting a long list of the companies MARSHALLTOWN has acquired in the last six years.

“We now have over 10,000 products in our catalog. We’re supporting something like 15 different trades and industries. If you gave me some time, I could probably get that up to 20,” he said. “What was once simply Marshalltown Trowel is now MARSHALLTOWN, home of the iconic American made tool brands. That’s why this nearly 200,000 square feet expansion is essential. We need more space for more brands. We need more space for manufacturing. This is American manufacturing. MARSHALLTOWN is American manufacturing.”

Vance first handed off the microphone to Mayor Joel Greer, who was brief in his remarks as he had to head to Fort Dodge for a professional obligation.

“I’d like to say this about MARSHALLTOWN Company. This organization has sent more people who work here to things like the city council, the school board, to the Chamber of Commerce, things like that, than anybody else in town. We’ve got some other really good manufacturing companies and other major employers in town, but MARSHALLTOWN Company is one of those you can just count on to be involved in the community,” he said.

Next up was Woodruff Construction Northeast Region President John Mallen, who shouted out several individuals involved in the architectural, electrical, HVAC and engineering work on the project along with members of his own team at Woodruff, the general contractor. Mallen described MARSHALLTOWN as his “ideal client.”

“What it really boils down to is that we share similar values, and that’s very important. And at Woodruff, that has been very important to us. We have the values of family, service, purpose, dependability and employment,” he said.

Mallen noted that the project would involve removing a street and creating a detention pond while 8th Avenue is redone completely for stormwater reasons.

“And that’s not only helping MARSHALLTOWN, but that’s helping this area of the community. So that really hits on our second core value of service to others,” he said. “We have three more core values, but I’m gonna stop there because I’m gonna need content for the next groundbreaking that we do, right?”

He also expressed appreciation for the close relationship his company has formed with MARSHALLTOWN leaders before the third John of the day, MARSHALLTOWN Vice President of Iowa and Illinois Operations and Engineering John Christen, came to the podium.

“Manufacturing, when done well, is extremely difficult. Almost every company wants to make a really good quality product for their customers, and they probably have good or maybe great product ideas and sales and marketing teams that reach their customers, but very few of them take on the challenges of manufacturing those products themselves,” Christen said.

As a frequent watcher of the popular television show “Shark Tank,” he noted that the aspiring entrepreneurs never ask for money to manufacture the products and are often advised to do it in other countries at a lower cost.

“We’re incredibly lucky to work for a company that values making our own products and is willing to invest in these kinds of facilities and state of the art equipment inside, and most importantly, in a really awesome team of people that work so hard in trying to figure out not just how to have the best products in our industry, but to be leaders in the manufacturing of those products,” Christen said.

Finally, he read a letter from MARSHALLTOWN President/CEO Joe Carter, who was unable to attend the ceremony, thanking everyone who was there to witness the milestone of another major groundbreaking.

“As we build this large expansion, we’ll have VAUGHAN hammers sending nails into 2x4s, MARSHALLTOWN brick trowels laying bricks, MARSHALLTOWN placers moving concrete, WAL-BOARD taping knives finishing drywall. We’ll have Bullet flooring cutters cutting vinyl tile and carpet squares, BARWALT knee pads supporting workers setting tile, DASCO PRO nail punches helping carpenters finish the trim work, and when the snow finally arrives later this year, we’ll have Avalanche! polar plungers clearing the sidewalk around this new facility,” Carter wrote.

Reiterating the company’s proud 135-year history and its continued trajectory of growth at multiple locations around the U.S., Carter wrote that Jessie and Lester Williams must be proud of what MARSHALLTOWN is today along with other leaders like Larry McCumber, Bob Becker and John Keyser.

“I hope the team members of MARSHALLTOWN who are here 135 years from now will look back on these moments and find that we did a great job of continuing the legacy of building an even better foundation for their future,” Carter wrote. “Thank you for being here. Now go dig some dirt, and then get back to work.”

From there, the shovel holders tossed the ceremonial dirt, and the construction project officially began in earnest. During a subsequent interview, Christen and Vance went into more detail about the expansion, which will add between 60,000 and 75,000 square feet of factory space, a new employee entrance, break rooms and locker rooms in its first phase — slated for completion in late 2025 or early 2026 — before moving on to the stormwater retention and an additional 100,000 to 120,000 square feet by late 2026 or early 2027.

While there is no set number, Christen anticipates hiring more workers in Marshalltown as a result of the expansion — MARSHALLTOWN currently has around 180 employees here.

“It’ll be a good amount of more manufacturing machines that we want to bring in and add to. We’re just limited on space right now, so a little bit more space to hold some distribution that we haven’t been able to do out of here before,” he said.

As bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. has become something of a buzzword and a political rallying cry recently, Christen and Vance commented that MARSHALLTOWN has been ahead of the game on doing so.

“It’s awesome to kind of be on the front of that wave,” Christen said. “We’ve been on a long growth curve for a long time, and when you work here, I think you kind of understand how that feels, then, and it is a pretty positive environment.”

According to a subsequent press release, the total area at MARSHALLTOWN’s Iowa facility will increase to approximately 350,000 square feet once the project is completed.