Litchfield company to break ground Monday for 15,000-square-foot addition

LITCHFIELD -- GVL Poly of Litchfield, a manufacturer of polyethylene gatherer shields for corn harvesting equipment, will hold a groundbreaking event at 10 a.m. Monday for a 15,000-square-foot shipping and receiving addition to the nearly 40,000-square-foot manufacturing plant located 3 miles west of Litchfield.

Allan Cronen, GVL Poly president and CEO, said the company is becoming more involved with original equipment manufacturing for customers in about 27 countries including those in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Ukraine, Russia, South Africa and Australia.

Cronen said about 90 percent of the company's business is production of corn "snouts,'' which fit over the gathering chain on corn headers made by John Deere, Case IH, Gleaner, New Holland, Cat Lexion, Massey Ferguson, AGCO and Harvest Tech equipment.

Construction of the project, at a cost of a little more than $2 million, will begin about a week after the groundbreaking event, said Cronen. Completion is anticipated around March 1. When completed, the facility will have about 55,000 square feet.

The company has 25 full-time employees. When the expansion is complete, Cronen plans to hire 5 additional people in the warehouse and assembly area, increasing employment to about 30.

-- David Little