Nebraska village sees manufacturing jobs return

It’s good news for the village of DeWitt, southwest of Lincoln.

After 10 years, an old tool factory had its grand re–opening Friday night.

They’re even hiring back some of the old employees who were laid off when the factory closed down.

“It just feels super,” said Village Board Chair Randy Badman.  “For the last two years, there’s been so much excitement and the morale has been so high here in DeWitt because of this building having some manufacturing back into it.”

Badman said he worked in the old VISE-GRIP factory for 36 years.

Rubbermaid closed its doors and sent its operations to China, with hundreds losing their jobs.

Now, Malco Products is setting up shop in the old building to make Eagle Grip hand tools.  Badman was hired as a consultant.

Malco’s president and CEO Mardon Quandt said DeWitt is a good fit for them.

“There’s a good base of employees here who understand making hand tools and they’ve worked in a lot of these processes in the past,” Quandt said.  “We’re located in rural Minnesota…and we just saw a good cultural fit with the people here in Nebraska.”

They also unveiled the new Eagle Grip tools that the factory will be making.

They’re asking people in the DeWitt area to be patient.  They said it’s going to start out slowly.

Nine people work in the factory now and they hope to be up to 20 in another year.  They wouldn’t say ultimately how many they hope to get up to.