Apple Valley Manufacturer Expands, Adds Jobs

Uponor, Inc., debuted this week a 20,200-square-foot expansion to its headquarters and manufacturing facility in Apple Valley—and the company now plans to add more jobs.
 
The plumbing and indoor climate systems manufacturer is based in Finland, but its North American headquarters are located in Apple Valley. Senator Amy Klobuchar and Representative John Kline attended Monday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for the company’s Minnesota expansion.
 
In addition to housing the company’s headquarters operations, the Apple Valley location includes an attached manufacturing facility. The Apple Valley operations house nearly all of Uponor’s North American work force, although it has 30 employees at a Lakeville distribution center and roughly 45 more workers in Canada, according to company spokeswoman Ingrid Mattsson.
 
“Last year at this time, we employed about 400 people in North America; today we are close to 500 employees,” Uponor North America President Bill Gray said at Monday’s ceremony. “We’re investing in our company, in Apple Valley, and in the community.”
 
Uponor has already added about 75 jobs this year in Apple Valley and is now looking to acquire new talent to fill the expanded space, mainly in manufacturing and maintenance roles, said Mattsson. She didn’t specify, however, the number of jobs that may be added.
 
The expansion provides a new bay for manufacturing operations that Mattsson said will help promote future product development—such as larger pipe sizes and a greater variety of pipefittings.
 
“We are always expanding our line and looking for new ways to innovate,” said Mattsson. “The main driver for new products is feedback from our contractors in the field; our job is to make their lives easier.”
 
The headquarters has expanded five times since opening in 1990. This latest expansion brought the facility to 230,000 total square feet, up from 51,800 in 1990.
 
Uponor has around 3,000 employees globally. The company’s revenue totaled about $1.1 billion last year, up about 1 percent from the year before.