BRAINERD LAKES AREA
re ss Edition g o r P B R A I N E R D
www.brainerddispatch.com
D I S P A T C H
L A B O R
D A Y
SERVING THE BRAINERD LAKES AREA AND CENTRAL MINNESOTA SINCE 1881
Mann Lake is
S P E C I A L
September 3, 2015 • September 7, 2015
• Travis Grimler photo
Employees assemble sections of the bee box called bee supers.
BUZZING to find workers, FILLS 50 JOBS BUT STILL SEEKING MORE EMPLOYEES By TRAVIS GRIMLER Staff Writer
In the spring of 2015, Mann Lake LTD of Hacken Hacken-
F Y OR
OUR
I
NFO
sack, the world’s largest beekeeping supply com company, was expanding — but not in Hackensack. The company started on the shores of Mann Lake where Vice President Jack Thomas and his wife, Betty, first started constructing beekeeping equipment. It has been steadily growing ever since. “During the recession when other companies were cutting back or laying off employees or making employees do more with less, we were growing,” said Vicki Dufner, human resources manager. Since its inception, the company has moved, grown and expanded, all signs of economic health. Production relocated from Mann Lake to the former Durkee’s location in Pine River and back to Hackensack. Today, they have a large facility on the southwest corner of Hackensack. The company also has locations in Pennsylvania and California, as well as a distribution center in London. The company is still growing, but that growth has been slower in Hackensack due to the lack of available workers in the area. “We can’t afford to put them in here (new pieces of equipment),” Thomas said. “The machines would sit idle.” The company’s California plant is scheduled to begin production of wood products at the end of 2015 or early 2016 and a new production plant is ramping up in Texas to begin production in the fall of 2015. Some production and shipping from the Hackensack plant will relocate to those plants to reduce stress and improve shipping and response time. “We are closer to the sources of lumber,” Thomas said. “Of course, that’s where our customers are. We wouldn’t have to ship the lumber or finished materials.”
EMPLOYEES SOUGHT
In both California and Texas there are large agriculture companies that depend on beekeeping companies to pollinate their food crops. In those same locations, there are also larger pools to draw workers. Meanwhile, in Hackensack there were 224 employees in the fall of 2015, while 45 fulltime positions with higher-than-average pay, dental insurance, vision insurance, health insurance, matching 401k, employee ownership and other benefits were unfilled. The rural communities around Hackensack weren’t producing enough
Mann Lake LTD • Location: Hackensack. • Employees: 275. • Looking to hire: 25 now and likely to increase this fall. • Fun Fact: Some honeybee buyers purchase 20,000 to 30,000 bees at one time. • To apply for a job: Those interested in a career with Mann Lake LTD can visit www.mannlakeltd.com/beekeeping-supplies/employee-opportunities.html for more information.
dedicated workers. The company used newspaper, radio, Internet marketing and other recruitment strategies to attract applicants. “(We’ve done) flyers,” Dufner said during an interview in the spring of 2015. “We’ve done a program where people can get a $50 cash bonus if they refer an employee. We’ve done referral bonuses. Job fairs, not only on site here but at the casino and other locations up to 60 miles away.” “We’ve tried everything other than witchcraft,” Thomas said. Those empty jobs range from production, loading, sales, finance and forklift drivers all the way up to a warehouse manager position. Thomas and Dufner said there simply wasn’t a big enough pool of workers. “I think geography has a lot to do with it,” Dufner said. “We’ve got good benefits and everything, but does a person want to drive from Bemidji every day? We have people that do that, but I think geography is part of the equation.”
See MANN LAKE LTD Page S58