By MaryHelen Swanson

Just south of 400th Street and east of Forest Boulevard in North Branch is a very large building that is now open for business - it is Anderson Corporationís new extrusion plant.

Area business leaders and elected officials were treated to a tour last Thursday as the facility became officially opened.

The building is 150,000 square feet on 16 acres in the North Branch Industrial Estates complex. It is Andersenís 9th facility in North America.
The plant will produce parts created from a composite of wood fiber and vinyl - Andersenís FibrexÆ material, exclusively for Andersenís door and window manufacturing plants.

Andersen began construction at the new North Branch location the end of October 2003 after several long months of negotiations with the city and after procuring JOBZ status from the state of Minnesota.

Minnesota Speaker of the House Steve Sviggum said it was all about jobs.

The North Branch facility, which has provided 19 new jobs to the area so far, is expected to employ 135 people when it reaches capacity.

ìNorth Branch should feel very good about bringing jobs like this to the community. Thank you, Andersen, for choosing North Branch and Minnesota, î Sviggum said at the opening of the community reception last week.

ìThe North Branch area business community and city administration allowed us to meet a very aggressive timetable to get this plant up and running,î said Jim Humphrey, president and chief executive officer at Andersen Corporation. ìWeíre very pleased with our choice of North Branch.î He also noted that the JOBZ program was the clincher for locating in North Branch.

North Branch Mayor Gloria Karsky welcomed Humphrey by saying the city was very proud to have them as part of the community. She said she hoped that the coming of Andersen would have a ripple effect and bring in more businesses with well-paying jobs.

ìThis facility is the first of its kind for Andersen. Weíre actually an internal supplier of components for Andersen products produced at other locations,î said Jim OíBrien, North Branch operations manager.

Humphrey also noted that Andersen Corporation is 101 years old. He said it has doubled its business in the last five years and that he is fortunate there is space to expand at the North Branch location.

During the tours, the local people learned about the environmental issues and how Andersen addresses them.

It is regulated by state permit. Emission sources include extruder exhaust, saw cutting and grinding. Filters control process dust.
Water is used for cooling during the extrusion process. The water is circulated and reused to minimize usage, but spent water can and will be discharged to the North Branch sanitary sewer system.

Waste minimization programs are in place to deal with solid waste. Returnable packaging is used where practical and recycling programs are in place in the building. A compactor is used to maximize load volume and reduce number of truck trips.

County Commissioner Rick Olseen also talked briefly last week, noting that there are still 100,000 acres of farm land in the county and that farming is a $60 million industry.

But he said what is missing is living wage jobs so the people donít have to commute to the cities. At capacity, the North Branch plant will operate 25 extrusion lines going round the clock.

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