MD Design, Regal Ware receive West Bend expansion assistance

The City of West Bend and Economic Development Washington County have approved incentive funding to support expansion plans by MD Design & Automation Inc. and Regal Ware Inc.

Each company will receive funding from West Bend’s revolving loan program fund through joint proposals from the City of West Bend and Economic Development Washington County. The terms of the loan proposals are expected to be finalized by the end of July.

Menomonee Falls-based MD Design is planning to move operations to a new facility it is purchasing in West Bend.  The company, which makes tools for industry, has been renting two units totaling 10,000-square-feet of space in Menomonee Falls since 1996, and will be purchasing a 12,000-square-foot facility north of highway NN on highway G for about $1 million for its relocation. There is about 15,000 square feet of expansion space available. It currently has 14 employees and would add at least five more in Menomonee Falls.

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The company will receive $150,000 in low interest financing from a county revolving loan fund and $150,000 in low interest financing from the city.

“We have been in our current facility for almost 20 years,” said Mike Daul, president of MD Design. “Once we decided that we couldn’t expand any further at our current site, West Bend stood out as a central location for our workforce and close proximity to many of our customers.”

Regal Ware, which makes cookware, will be offered $400,000 from the county fund and $400,000 from the city for new equipment. The total project cost is about $5 million. Jobs that may be added are still being negotiated, said Deborah Reinbold, business solutions specialist at EDWC.

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“The low-interest loans that we have been offered will allow us to invest in new, highly technical equipment which will allow us to improve our efficiencies, expand our production capacity, and improve competitiveness with foreign producers,” said Tracy Pearson, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Regal Ware. “The new equipment will require workers trained in computer controls to run an integrated system of operations versus traditional mechanical operation of one or two machines which are part of a production line.”

“West Bend has made the right investments to prepare for the activity that we are currently experiencing,” said Kraig Sadownikow, mayor of West Bend. “We have sites available that are certified by the state as shovel-ready, meaning that development may occur rapidly on these sites as the key approvals, documentations and assessments most commonly required for industrial uses are already in place.”

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