FREEPORT (WIFR) — A Freeport plant undergoing a major expansion, including the addition of 20 new jobs, got a visit Wednesday from Congressman Bobby Schilling.
Tri Star Metals, LLC takes raw stainless steel and copper wire and finishes the materials to be made into products like springs, fasteners, even charcoal grill racks and deep fryer baskets.
The company’s president, Jay Madel, says Tri Star Metals is in the process of moving into a new facility that is 81 thousand sqaure feet larger than its previous building. The company also just added 10 million dollars in new machinery. Mandel hopes these changes will help to increase his client list in the aerospace and defense industries. Schilling sits on the House Armed Services Committee and says connecting with companies like Tri Star can be invaluable to our nation’s defense industry.
“I’m a firm believer that when it comes to our military, that everything should be made in the United States,” says Schilling. “Usually you get 80 percent of your product from outside the United States. Now they’re getting 80 percent on their product from inside the United States and that is growing. And that’s what we want; we want to put Americans back to work.”
“We decided a couple years ago with some of the growth in the aerospace industry that we needed to have better domestic products,” says Jay Mandel, the president of Tri Star Metals, LLC. “We also believe with some of the new, more efficient equipment and the superior workforce we’re finding here in Freeport, we could make a product at or below what the imports cost with the ability to offer our customers an all domestic product.”
Mandel says his company is one of only 4 in the nation to use some of this state of the art equipment.
To apply for a job at Tri-Star, go to http://www.tristar.hafesta.de/en/company/employment/
