exist forward 0 views
John Reynolds, vice president of sales at Marshalltown, Fayetteville, demonstrates how to use the Wal-Board hopper gun in a training session watched by Jack Murders, vice president of Arkansas Facilities.
Marshalltown added more than 100 jobs to its Fayetteville facility through the acquisition of Wal-Board Tools in Long Beach, California. Financial terms were not disclosed. Marshalltown said the deal would add nearly 200 jobs, most of them in Fayetteville.
Wal-Board Tools has been a competitor for more than 75 years, said Jack Murders, vice president of the Marshalltown Arkansas facility. He said the acquisition would give Marshalltown the ability to provide customers with the world’s widest range of drywall tools. The deal adds nearly 300 products to the Marshalltown catalog. Marshalltown will consolidate Wal-Board’s manufacturing and distribution operations into its Fayetteville and Marshalltown, Iowa locations.
The Fayetteville plant employed about 500 people at two locations in the city’s industrial business district, the murders said. Marshalltown has hired more than 20 people in preparation for the acquisition, which closes in September, he said. 30. He said that the company recognized the national labor force problem, but had no problems with recruiting.
“Our starting salary is $20 an hour, and we’ve hired several new employees who have recently moved to the area. We’re hiring through recruiting campaigns, also using temps, and many of them become full-time. We’re not really trying to keep Filling of hourly positions. We are filling some other positions in the company from vacancies related to major resignations,” Murders said.
Wal-Board’s management is not expected to stay, but the brand will coexist with Marshalltown, he said.
“With this acquisition, we will be adding 10 to 15 production lines and adding jobs in multiple areas such as line production, transportation, distribution, management, engineering and maintenance. We have acquired some inventory from Wal-Board and are already in Some manufacturing is taking place locally and will start shipping these within a few days,” Murders said.
It will take time to ramp up production, but Wal-Board’s customers will be served, he said. Both Fayetteville plants are operating at full capacity, which is why the company broke ground in October on a 50,000-square-foot expansion at the Armstrong Street facility, Murders said. Industrial Street factories will be added in 2023, he said.
Wal-Board, the largest transaction in the Marshalltown, Iowa, company’s history, is expected to open new lines of business in the construction and drywall business. Mr Murders said business in Marshalltown remained strong despite ongoing supply chain challenges and rising inflation.
“We serve the commercial and residential construction industries, where demand continues to be pent-up. We are well aware of slowing economies and have tended to perform well in past recessions. We have a small business serving areas outside of Asia, including China, which It’s still a challenge, but the supply chain issues in the U.S. are equally problematic,” he said.
Demand for residential construction has slowed slightly, but demand for renovations remains high, he said. Rising material costs have put some projects on hold and no one knows how the economy will move into 2023, Murders said.
“We are excited to grow our business and bring strong brand recognition to Wal-Board Tools. We will weather any economic downturn and continue to provide our customers with the tools they need,” said Murders.