Ariens Company Expands Workforce, Plant

Company recently completed a $3.8M expansion

BRILLION -  September 16 -- Ariens Company is an international business, best known for manufacturing snow blowers and lawn mowers.

The company has not only just completed a major addition to one of its plants, it is also expanding its workforce.

"I'm a machinist on second shift," explained Ken Boville.

Boville is one of more than 1,300 people who work for Ariens Company in Wisconsin. The family-run company employs more than 2,000 worldwide. Friday afternoon, it celebrated a 26,000 square-foot, $3.8 million expansion at its headquarters.

"The lifeblood, the heartbeat of the company is in the product development and that's what we're building here," said Dan Ariens, president and CEO of Ariens Company.

The company's president and CEO says Ariens saw a 28% increase in sales during its last fiscal year. The new space will be home to research and development, as well as engineering and expanded testing capabilities.

"The catalyst is always growing. If you're not growing it's hard to invest," said Ariens.

Not only has the building at Ariens expanded, but the company has added new jobs earlier this year, and will continue to add jobs.

"Ariens' growth has allowed them to invest in an expanded facility here," said Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wisconsin, who cut the ribbon at the expansion. "It's going to mean more people back to work, and that ultimately helps them compete in a global marketplace."

Ariens says his company has hired 200 people this year, and plans to hire 100 more. But the news wasn't always so positive. About 10 years ago, he had to layoff 250 employees.

"Since then, with expanding productivity, we've had to expand our business to be able to keep the same number of employees or more. So in 10 years, we have more than doubled in the number of people. So that means we've gone from 10 years ago, around 1,000 to over 2,000 people today," said Ariens.

Some workers, like Boville hope to stay at Ariens until retirement.

"They actually are looking for many people and I think that it's great that a company can stay on their feet during bad times," said Boville.

Ariens is holding a job fair on September 28th, from 3 - 6 pm at its headquarters in Brillion. The CEO says the company is looking to hire skilled laborers as well as entry level employees.