Hello from ALMCO!

It is always nice to kick off the second half of the year with a celebration of the Independence Day of the United States of America! While we have many customers in other countries, we do most of our business in the United States and we are proud to support our country and area businesses.

It seems that we have been talking about COVID and the supply chain shortage for a long time now. ALMCO was certainly hit by both issues and we have continued to grow our business and coverage despite these setbacks. ALMCO is on pace for another record year of orders and shipments will be very close depending on availability of parts needed to build our equipment. We have made several changes to help stock parts that our customers need. Many new media and compound customers have switched to ALMCO because we have been able offer in-stock solutions. Thank you to our customers for trusting ALMCO to help your business achieve its goals.

As I mentioned, we have customers in many countries and this year I went to Singapore for a machine commissioning. This was a fascinating trip, as it was the farthest I had traveled from Albert Lea, Minnesota. It was interesting to see the differences in our cultures and the similarities in our work. Our business partners were friendly and accommodating. We look forward to expanding our business volume in other countries.

As ALMCO continues to grow, we are bursting at the seams. The Innovance (ALMCO parent company) companies are growing and space is becoming more valuable. There is talk about building or buying space in the next 3 to 5 years. This would be exciting as ALMCO has been in the same manufacturing facility since 1946. ALMCO would likely share space with a sister company.

Speaking of growth, all Innovance employees are part of an ESOP. The company distributes shares to the employees every year and the value of the shares grows with the company value. The ESOP culture here has really helped our workers to see the value of hard work and efficiency. ALMCO has been part of Innovance and the ESOP since 2004.

You may recall that ALMCO celebrated its 75th anniversary last year and our sister company, Lou-Rich, is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. It was decided that a company-wide celebration would be held this year. There was cake and a kick-off celebration. We are in the middle of 50 days of giveaways to employee-owners leading up to an evening offsite celebration this August that will include a concert, food, drinks and games.

ALMCO has been busy designing and building equipment as quickly as possible for customer orders. Thus, sometimes our research and development projects get delayed by production work. Innovance created an R&D group this year and they are working through a list of project ideas for new equipment and product improvements. This will result in more new product offerings in the coming years. This group is also going to help the Innovance companies stay on top of the latest technology in solid modeling, schematic generation and other engineering tools.

Summer is always busy and fun. Remember to find time for your friends and family. After all, that is why we are all working. I wish you and your business a great third quarter.

Best Regards,
Tim Grahn
General Manager