Great news this week in Mitchell, where it was announced that one company is expanding and it was learned that another is building on a new site.
Monday, The Daily Republic learned that Lewis Drug plans to construct a new building at 1507 N. Main. The 4,000-square-foot plan went before the Mitchell Planning and Zoning Commission Monday and will cost about $450,000 to construct.
And then this bombshell: AKG North American announced Tuesday it will build an addition to add another 60,000 square feet of manufacturing space to its Mitchell location.
With the expansion, it's expected that AKG will hire an additional 80 workers by 2015, according to AKG North American Operations Vice President Wolfgang Dallmann.
This is great news indeed, and the timing just couldn't be more perfect.
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This spring, Verifications Inc. announced it was shutting down its Mitchell facility, meaning approximately 80 people will soon be out of work.
Even that was followed by good news. Trail King, we reported, is looking for workers, and lots of them.
And now AKG is expanding, offsetting the disappointment created by Verifications and adding to the momentum that seems to be happening here in Davison County.
AKG appears to be a good company and a good neighbor. Generally speaking, the German company produces air-cooled heat exchangers for radiators, which it sells to large-equipment companies.
We find it interesting that a German company is solidly rooted on the city's south side, while the Japanese company Toshiba is a great community employer on the north side. Imagine traveling back in time and telling Mitchell residents of 1943 that two of the city's great employers would be based out of Japan and Germany.
Thank goodness they're here. Mitchell needs companies that need workers.
Congratulations, AKG, on the expansion. And congratulations, Mitchell, for the good news that comes our way this week.
