Fire truck maker Crimson Fire, a wholly owned subsidiary of Spartan Motors, is building a new facility adjacent to its existing Brandon, South Dakota, headquarters. The expansion will allow the company to add new equipment and meet growing demand for its products.
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Crimson Fire said the first phase of the new 32,000-square-foot facility will include additional manufacturing space and corporate offices, while the second phase will feature a product showroom and technology demonstration area.
The new assembly plant is expected to begin production in the fourth quarter, with the showroom scheduled to open in 2005. The new facility will add capacity for the engineering and production of Crimson Fire’s popular Star Series fire trucks and will double Crimson’s manufacturing capacity in South Dakota.
Crimson Fire said its order backlog was up 28% at the end of the first quarter 2004 versus year-end 2003, and up 54% compared with the same time last year.
Construction for the new $3 million facility is already underway. Crimson expects to employ at least 30 additional workers once the expansion is complete. The company said this expansion will not absorb capacity from other facilities in Alabama and Pennsylvania, and it expects to hire additional employees at its other locations in response to increasing demand.
The addition of the South Dakota facility follows a strategic plan to focus each plant on specific products. Alabama is focused on building the E-series product line, Lancaster builds exclusively aerial products, while the two South Dakota facilities will build the mid-level to premium Star Series line. Each location will offer factory service and final vehicle inspections on all products for customers in that region.
