June 9, 2017 – West Bend, WI – Gehl Foods, headquartered on Whitney Drive in Germantown, has sold its West Bend plant, 825 Rail Way, to a plastic bottle manufacturer in Austria.
Records obtained from the Register of Deeds shows Alpla Inc. closed on the purchase of the property on May 31, 2017 for $5,430,000.
The 200,000-square-foot property on Rail Way was built in 2006. The building is assessed as a manufacturing company and in 2016 the assessed value was $3,741,600.
Alpla Inc. describes itself as “an internationally active company that grows with its global customers. This growth of course demands motivated and well-trained specialists and executives with a technical or business background. Leadership in innovation together with operational excellence are key success factors. ALPLA’s corporate culture is characterized by a hands-on mentality and with a deep identification of family values. With this in mind, ALPLA provides professional on-the-job training with attractive entry-level career opportunities.”
According to the Biz Times in Milwaukee, “The company moved a plant manager to the site June 1 and has retained the 21 employees who were working there for Gehl, said Tom Jablonsky, vice president of manufacturing Alpla’s North American region. “Our intention is to grow the business within that site and regionally,” Jablonsky said. “We intend to grow employees internally and add locally as much as possible.”
Just last month the company went before the Germantown plan commission with a request to expand its Main Street plant.