Guttenberg Industries’ Strong 2020 Finish Creates Positive 2021 Outlook
It is unlikely that many manufacturers escaped 2020 without some battle scars. However, it appears the three-month period of May-June-July 2020 will be only a small blip on the steady growth for Guttenberg Industries. Highlighting the work of our great employees that represent rural Iowa, not only has the final half of 2020 been encouraging, but a group of new customers will further set the stage for high expectations in 2021.
Guttenberg Industries, a custom plastic injection molding business started by John Ertl, now based in Garnavillo, Iowa, will enter its 47th year as a family-owned business on another upswing. While the mid-year Covid- 19 impact on some of our customers resulted in our lowest 3-month sales period since the third quarter of 2017 – when Guttenberg Industries was establishing its first of four consecutive years with sales over $20 million – the year ended very strong.
The prognosis for 2021 looks more than promising. Projects that some current customers postponed from 2020 are scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2021. In addition, Guttenberg Industries is in the process of onboarding a half-dozen internationally recognized companies, including a pair of legacy Iowa companies: Ag Leader (https://www.agleader.com/) and Kinze Manufacturing (https://www.kinze.com/).
We are especially proud to welcome two new global suppliers. Both Primex Technologies (https://primex.com/) of British Columbia, Canada, and retail product manufacturer, ZIPIT (https://just-zipit.com/), headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel are new key high volume customers for Guttenberg Industries.
Finally, we never want to leave out start-up companies who are striving to gain a foot-hold in the marketplace like Safer Work Solutions and its construction product, the Bucket Butler (https://bucketbutler.com/).
“Guttenberg Industries is thankful both for the abundant opportunities that these, and other, new clients have brought to us, as well as the foundation of outstanding, resilient clients that continue to grow with us, and enable us to welcome the new business,” says Dave Kreul, president of Guttenberg Industries.
“As a company, we are very happy to strengthen our business relationships with Ag Leader and Kinze again,” continued Kreul. “And, we are proud to have the trust of well-established international organizations such as Primex and Zipit become partners. Together, with our long-standing existing customer base, Guttenberg Industries is looking forward to stability and growth in this new year.”