Tour highlights industry impact

Tag : embroidery insole
The Cassville Area Chamber of Commerce hosted an industrial tourlast Thursday that allowed interested citizens to tour four localindustries that provide employment to over 400 area residents.
Justin Boot, Arning Canopy Systems, Luck E Strike and George's feedmill were the tour destinations during the four-hour event, whichattracted the interest of about 45 chamber members.
"This is a great way for the chamber to showcase some of ourindustries, which provide so much to our local economy," saidChamber President Susie Jacobs.
Justin Boot
Justin Boot Cassville plant manager Frances Smith and plantsuperintendent Jeremy Williams led guided tours through the localJustin Brands, Inc., on June 5.
Prior to starting the tours, Smith and Williams explained theboot-making process from material ordering to finishing.
"Our (boot) last room is not here today," said Smith. "We areshutting that department back early because right now it is hard toget supplies from China."
As Justin Brands competes with boot makers in China, Mexico andIndia each year, the company continually looks for ways to keepproduction prices competitive, said Smith.
"It gets hard to make boots at a low price to compete," said Smith."That is a lot of the reason why we specialize in exotic boots."
In addition to creating footwear with exotic hides, Justin Bootoffers custom boots with special embroidery work, which are oftenordered by professional sports teams and celebrities.
"We have a really good boss in Ft. Worth that fights to keepfactories, like this one, going," said Smith.
The Justin Boot plants in Cassville produce over 285,000 pairs ofboots annually. In addition, the Cassville plant produces over350,000 six-piece insole sets for the Justin Brand's plant locatedin Carthage each year.
To help its 198 employees combat rising gas prices, the localmanufacturing plant just recently switched its production scheduleto four days a week instead of five.
Arning Canopy Systems
Groups of eight toured Arning Canopy Systems, Inc., and were ableto see first hand how the company fabricates canopy systems forconvenience stores, fast food restaurants and car washes.
According to company officials, some of Arning's biggest customersinclude Conoco, Kum and Go, Suds car washes and Sonic. The plantalso manufactures awnings, kiosk buildings, structural steelbuilding packages and ACM wall panels.
On the day of the tour, a number of employees were working on thepre-fabricated steel pieces that are assembled into Sonicdrive-throughs across the country. Within just a few hours, Arningcan send out a truck with the items needed to erect a new Sonicrestaurant with each site built to suit the owner's specifications.
Arning also specializes in bridge components. Currently, one ofArning's bridges is being erected at the new Barry County Museum.Arning also supplies bridge materials for many of the Barry Countybridge projects.
The company keeps a large inventory of its pre-fabricated steelproducts in a huge shipping yard located behind the plant, whichallows for quick delivery to meet customers' busy constructionschedules.
Currently, Arning has close to 100 employees working two shifts. Inaddition to its pre-fabricated canopy systems and buildingproducts, Arning also specializes in fabrication and design andsells commercial building materials.
Luck E Strike
While directing visitors through Luck E Strike's 34,000-square-footfacility, President John Hendricks took the opportunity to explainthe company's need for additional manufacturing space.
"We need a new building badly," said Hendricks. "Right now, we shipto 40 Wal-Mart locations. Within 18 months, we need to be able toship to 3,000 locations weekly. We will need a shipping area as bigas our current building."
According to Hendricks, Wal-Mart represents $2 million in annualsales for the local company. He added that Bass Pro Shops wasanother large Luck E Strike customer.
The company, which specializes in fishing lures, sells its productsin 15 to 16 different countries and at retail locations throughoutthe U.S. As one of only a few companies that keeps all of itsproducts in stock, Luck E Strike requires a large warehouse.
"We have 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 lures and worms in stock at alltimes," said Hendricks.
Currently, Luck E Strike employs 56 people at the plant. Thecompany also employs 50 homeworkers who package worms from home.
"About 35 percent of our packaging is done in homes around BarryCounty," said Hendricks.
George's Feed Mill
Tour participants had a rare opportunity to take a guided tour ofGeorge's new feed mill, which opened in the fall of 2007.
The state-of-the-art facility, which is located at the southwestcorner of the intersection of Highways 37 and W, represents a $20million investment by George's in southwest Missouri poultryproduction.
At full capacity, the mill will be able to produce 20,000 tons offeed a week. Currently, the mill is producing 7,500 to 8,000 tonsof feed weekly.
The mammoth structure rises 170 feet into the air. Each feed bin is140 feet tall and 35 feed wide with the capacity to hold 100,000bushels of corn per bin. The mill's monthly utility bill, includingelectric and gas, runs about $60,000.
An integral part of the feed mill system is a 7,400 foot loop ofrailroad track that serves the facility. The track was built tohandle a 110-car shuttle train, and the mill was constructed sothat it has a capacity to unload 50,000 bushels of corn an hourfrom the train.
"It takes us 11 hours to unload 110 cars, and we have enoughstorage to hold two shuttle train loads," said Monty Henderson,president of George's who conducted one of the chamber toursthrough the mill. "Right now it costs $6.50 a bushel for corndelivered to Cassville. A shuttle train of 110 cars costs about$2.8 million."
In explaining how the mill produces feed, Henderson described themill's 20,000-pound mixer as "the heart" of the operation.
"This is a mixer with a 200-tons-an-hour mixing capacity that canmix a batch of feed every three minutes," said Henderson.
One of the mill's other state-of-the-art features is a computerizedreceiving system that can unload 50,000 bushels of corn an hour andhas the capability of testing every feed source that comes into themill.
The mill also utilizes three 350-horsepower grinders, a cooler thatcan cool 65 tons of finished feed per hour and two pellet millsthat can produce 65 tons of feed an hour. The facility currentlyproduces 10 to 12 different feed diets with the ability to supply200 to 250 farms from the Butterfield feed mill.
The feed mill currently employs 28. When it reaches full capacity,the feed mill payroll will grow to about 40 workers. Garland Hensonserves as feed mill manager.