We will make this an “Aalberts Day” with a second press release about the company. Matt Calnin was recently appointed Plant Manager of the Fort Smith, Arkansas, “Aalberts Surface Technologies Specialized Heat Treatment US location. Not familiar with this plant? We searched through out archives and came up with the press release from when the plant was originally set up by Applied Process;

“AUGUST  18th, 2018; Applied Process, Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA; We promised you updates about the new Applied Process commercial heat treating facility in Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA and this is the first installment. This will be one of the largest new heat treating facility investments in North America in 2018.  “Livonia, Mich.-based Applied Process opened its doors to the public to celebrate the beginning of operations in Fort Smith. The company purchased and renovated an abandoned building at 5400 North 6th Street for $2.751 million starting in January. The overall expansion has been between $8 million and $10 million, counting the addition of industrial equipment.

The location was once a spice warehouse for OK Foods. For Tim Allen, president and CEO of the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, the process started “about a year ago.” According to the company’s recruiting brochure, the average entry-level production wage is $31,500 and the company pays up to 95% of health insurance premiums. After adding in another $3,600 in average entry-level bonus and profit sharing, the total compensation comes out to about $49,600, or roughly $23.85 per hour for new hires with no experience. Plant manager Rusty Rainbolt told Talk Business & Politics the facility had 20 employees when it officially opened last month, that it hopes to add “another 5-6 soon, and over the next five years, we’re going to grow that number up to about 50.” “We started as a half-size facility with three furnaces, and we’ll grow out to six,” he added. The current plant size is about 51,000 square feet. Applied Process specializes in austempering heat treatment processing. It has “a diverse industry base,” Rainbolt explained. “We work in everything from automotive to aerospace to mining and construction and agriculture. Big customers of ours would be Ford Motor Company, Fiat Chrysler, John Deere, Caterpillar, all the way to railroad companies.”

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