Jarraff Industries doubles size, sales in St. Peter

Jarraff Industries all model product lineup. (Photo courtesy of James Schill, Lime Valley Advertising Inc.) Engine being prepped for install in the assembly building at Jarraff Industries in St. Peter. (Photo courtesy of James Schill, Lime Valley Advertising Inc.)

Jarraff Industries

doubles size, sales in St. Peter

Business is booming at St. Peter’s Jarraff Industries, which manufactures specialized right-of-way (RoW) maintenance, land clearing and tree care equipment that is used throughout the world. The most significant expansion started in 2017.

That year, Jarraff started an initiative to double the size and capacity of the plant along with sales by 2020.

Jarraff is currently on the industrial park on the north end of town. There are eight buildings on its campus. The biggest, the assembly building, has doubled in size. Other buildings on campus include those for fabrication, shipping and receiving, parts and service department and a research and development engineering building.

“During the expansion, we acquired property next door to ours and relocated processes on campus to where it made sense,” Director of Operations Meghan Strait said.

Currently Jarraff manufactures and sell several hundred products per year which ship worldwide.

Doubling in size allowed for the capacity to go from make to order, to make to stock, meaning the product is available.

“When our customers place an order, they want the product available right away,” Strait said. “In 2017, lead time made earliest delivery dates months out. Our customers want and expect product sooner. This was a leading driver in us wanting to increase capacity and reduce lead time.”

Although there was a slowdown in the business last year as a result of COVID-19, Jarraff is back up to speed and more in 2021.

“It is an unprecedented time for manufacturing,” Strait said. “In 2020 we had to get creative so we didn’t over build and have too much inventory, which every manufacturer was doing. Now in 2021 it is the opposite: everybody wants product, everyone needs components. With component and resource availability, trying to fill orders with no lead time is difficult with the current state of manufacturing.”

Staffing has had to increase to meet the

added demand. The number of employees has grown from just under 50 in 2017, to over 60 and Jarraff is still hiring. Openings include welders and fabricators, painters, assemblers, material handlers, engineers, office associates, and parts and service specialists.

New products and enhancements are always in the pipeline but won’t be showcased until they are ready for launch, Strait said.

“We’ve got three distinct product lines of specialized equipment,” Strait said.

The Jarraff all-terrain tree trimmer was the company’s first product.

“It is our bread and butter,” Strait said.

JUST THE FACTS

1730 N Gault St, St Peter jarraff.com 507-934-8688

Apply: jarraff.com/company/ open-positionsa