A 32-year-old, family-owned manufacturer of skid steer attachments is expanding production outside of its rural Minnesota plant for the first time with plans to retrofit an abandoned tool and die plant in Pikeville, Tennessee.

Virnig Manufacturing Inc. announced Monday it will invest $11.6 million to renovate and equip the former Eclipse plant on Allen Deakins Road in Pikeville and create 74 jobs.

“We’re moving equipment in next week,” said Lois Virnig, who co-founded the company with her husband Dean in 1989. “We hope to be in production by January.”

Virnig will fabricate, weld, paint, assemble and ship the same products in the 62,000-square-foot Pikeville plant that it does at its corporate headquarters in Rice, Minnesota, where the company currently has 180 employees. Click this link to learn more!