Vermont Castings invests $10 million in improvements
Source: VT Digger
Over the past three years, HNI — through its Hearth & Home division — has invested $10 million in upgrades at Vermont’s Casting’s Randolph and Bethel plants, and made the foundry the manufacturing center for iron castings for other brands of its wood-burning stoves. The company has pulled back to Randolph subcontracting done in Belgium, China and Washington state as the modernization increased the plant’s capacity and reduced its operating costs.
The plant modernization in Randolph includes upgrades to the plant’s exterior, two new computer numerical control (CNC) machines, complete renovations of the administrative offices and lunchroom (it helps to be owned by an office furniture company), new air compressors to power shop floor machinery and equipment and a “robotic processing center” designed to make stove parts and reduce the incidence of workplace injuries.