Hranec celebrates grand opening of manufacturing facility
Around 2020, Hranec Corp. President Steve Hranec came to Joel Harkins with a bold idea: a big new facility to help grow the company’s fashioning of curbs and rails for roofing.
“He said we had all the things we’d ever need, and it would be at least 10 years before we got through that building,” said Harkins, vice president of Hranec’s roof products division.
As it turns out, Hranec was right to believe it would grow the company.
He was just a little off on the timing.
Four years after that building opened, Hranec, Harkins and dozens of employees and Fayette County notables assembled across the street Thursday night for the grand opening of Hrenac’s new 200,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in German Township.
Operations began in January. The new building is large enough to fit five of the buildings Hranec once thought would take a decade to outgrow, Harkins said.
The company said the expanded facility could create as many as 100 new jobs.
Five tour groups covered the building simultaneously Thursday night, only occasionally catching sight of another one.
Hranec sketched out the division for the crowd beforehand. A third of the building goes to custom spiral and oval ductwork. Another third is set up for roof curbs, which are used for housing large HVAC equipment.
And the other third?
“We really haven’t figured out yet,” Hranec said.
That will come, said Dave Procratsky, vice president of manufacturing. He recalled the early days of the company, when workers in the basement of a small building across the street would unload sheets of metal by hand.
Now, overhead cranes help offload the materials for what has become one of the largest ductwork manufacturers in the country, Procratsky said.
Although Procratsky first thought Hranec was “a little bit crazy” for pitching the new facility, he’s seen the wisdom of it as operations ramped up.
“The way that we’re filling it up is happening quickly,” he said.
Officials said the expansion would provide a boost for the region.
State Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa said Hranec should be commended by providing training for youth in the area and building a skilled workforce. She also praised them for pushing through obstacles in connecting electricity and gas to the new facility.
“They’re saying ‘We’re not going to be soft, we’re going to go forward, because this is a commitment not just to the success of our business, but to the success of Fayette County,'” she said.
Fayette County Board Chairman Scott Dunn began his speech by reading an anonymous Facebook comment: “Fayette County offers zero good jobs, no opportunities, no future.”
Success stories like Hranec’s prove the online trolls wrong, he said. Beyond Hranec, at least six other manufacturers in the county are in expansion mode.
The positions Hranec is bringing further benefit the area by being high-paying union jobs, Dunn said. A journeyman position at the company pays $47 an hour.
“Because of you, because of what’s happening out here, we see a future of innovation, a future of growth, a future of leadership, a future of commitment,” he said. “And maybe as important as anything, we see a future of opportunities for Fayette County.”