By Mike McLean
Of the Journal of Business
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Ground Force Worldwide LLC, the Post Falls-based parent company of Ground Force Manufacturing LLC and Underground Force LLC, has launched manufacturing operations on two other continents and is looking to expand to a fourth, says Ron Nilson, the company's president and CEO.
Most recently, Ground Force has begun production in South America at a plant near Lima, Peru, and, in coming months, it plans to begin production in Australia, Nilson says.
Ground Force Worldwide's first foreign expansion was in 2011 in the United Kingdom, where the company is producing water tankers and fuel lube trucks at the Caterpillar plant in the northern England town of Peterlee. Those trucks are then sold in European and Russian markets.
Altogether, Ground Force Worldwide has 50 workers in its foreign facilities, including contract employees, and expects that number to grow to 100 within a year, Nilson says.
The foreign production also creates jobs in nearby North Idaho, Nilson says, where many vital components are still manufactured for all of Ground Force's products, safeguarding the company's patents and trademarks.
The company employs more than 200 workers in North Idaho at its Ground Force and Underground Force facilities in Post Falls and Plummer.
Ground Force is an original equipment manufacturer for Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar Inc.'s mining and construction equipment division. The company fabricates and installs specialized equipment for some of the world's largest support vehicles, including fuel and lube trucks, water tankers, explosive-delivery trucks, and mechanic-service trucks.
Its sister company, Underground Force, outfits similar trucks that are scaled smaller to support underground mining operations.
"We're continuing to grow domestically and internationally," Nilson says. The company's annual revenues have soared a lofty 75 percent in each of the last three years, charting sales in more than 45 countries, he asserts.
Domestically, the company's two Post Falls plants, located at 5650 and 6001 E. Seltice Way, occupy a total of 150,000 square feet of floor space in nine buildings.
It also has leased a 55,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Plummer formerly occupied by Echelon LLC.
Nilson founded Ground Force in 2000, when he bought the assets of Aresco Inc., another Post Falls mining equipment manufacturer. Ground Force Worldwide was formed as the parent company in 2011, when Nilson launched Underground Force.
Most recently, Ground Force has begun production in South America at a plant near Lima, Peru, and, in coming months, it plans to begin production in Australia, Nilson says.
Ground Force Worldwide's first foreign expansion was in 2011 in the United Kingdom, where the company is producing water tankers and fuel lube trucks at the Caterpillar plant in the northern England town of Peterlee. Those trucks are then sold in European and Russian markets.
Altogether, Ground Force Worldwide has 50 workers in its foreign facilities, including contract employees, and expects that number to grow to 100 within a year, Nilson says.
The foreign production also creates jobs in nearby North Idaho, Nilson says, where many vital components are still manufactured for all of Ground Force's products, safeguarding the company's patents and trademarks.
The company employs more than 200 workers in North Idaho at its Ground Force and Underground Force facilities in Post Falls and Plummer.
Ground Force is an original equipment manufacturer for Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar Inc.'s mining and construction equipment division. The company fabricates and installs specialized equipment for some of the world's largest support vehicles, including fuel and lube trucks, water tankers, explosive-delivery trucks, and mechanic-service trucks.
Its sister company, Underground Force, outfits similar trucks that are scaled smaller to support underground mining operations.
"We're continuing to grow domestically and internationally," Nilson says. The company's annual revenues have soared a lofty 75 percent in each of the last three years, charting sales in more than 45 countries, he asserts.
Domestically, the company's two Post Falls plants, located at 5650 and 6001 E. Seltice Way, occupy a total of 150,000 square feet of floor space in nine buildings.
It also has leased a 55,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Plummer formerly occupied by Echelon LLC.
Nilson founded Ground Force in 2000, when he bought the assets of Aresco Inc., another Post Falls mining equipment manufacturer. Ground Force Worldwide was formed as the parent company in 2011, when Nilson launched Underground Force.
Read entire story here: Journal of Business
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