Sukup to use Hampton expansion to supplement existing manufacturing

Sukup Manufacturing is coming to Hampton.

The company recently announced that they will be expanding their operations outside of their home location in Sheffield, developing a new manufacturing facility in Hampton's industrial park.

The Sheffield based manufacturing company has long been a major employer in Franklin County, and has seen near exponential growth in recent times. According to President and CEO Steve Sukup, Sukup Manufacturing has grown eightfold in the last two decades.

Sukup's continued growth has demanded additional machinery, but the company found themselves without a place to put it at their primary base of operations in Sheffield. At roughly the same time, Des Moines Bolt, a vendor that had done business with Sukup's, decided to move out of their 30,000 square foot facility in Hampton's industrial park.

Already familiar with the building and in need of the space, Sukup's decided to move in.

Sukup's has six distribution centers in the Midwest and some light manufacturing in other locations, along with two operations overseas, but this will be the company's first major domestic manufacturing expansion outside of Sheffield.

"It's not completely foreign to us," said Sukup. "The others have been nicely successful, so we thought we'd keep doing it."

The new facility will be handling some of the company's specific operations, making parts for their bin line and other commercial equipment to supplement their current manufacturing capability.

Machinery is already starting to get moved in to the building and the company is looking for people new hires to fill positions. Sukup estimates that the facility will add about 20 new jobs to the city.

Things are moving quickly and the company plans to have the facility online by mid-February and fully operational by the end of March.

"We're looking forward to it, getting some new folks onboard and going from there," said Sukup. "We're glad to give 2021 a run here."