Labor Day, Every Day

Southern Minnesota business leaders laboring in agriculture, construction, and manufacturing highlight this issue.

In agriculture, we feature 25-year industry veteran Roger Kienholz, 57-year-old general manager of $375 million Crystal Valley, which serves customers and members in its four business segments of grain, energy, feed, and agronomy. This cooperative has 250 full-time and seasonal employees, and has operations in Lake Crystal, Darfur, LaSalle, Madelia, Nicollet, Vernon Center, Waldorf, Janesville, and Hope (near Owatonna).

Over the years on our cover, we have featured the leaders of the two co-ops in our region larger than Crystal Valley, i.e., AMPI (New Ulm) and WFS (Truman). UFC (Lafayette) is right behind Crystal Valley.

As for construction, read what has been behind the success of earthwork and construction management giant Mathiowetz Construction (Sleepy Eye), which recently has made Mankato roundabouts and smoothed soil for a new Walmart distribution facility.

In manufacturing, we have stacked the success story of savvy pallet manufacturer Berry Pallets (Waseca), which started as a one-man operation slicing firewood for retail sale before evolving into a 36-employee manufacturing facility.

Finally, remember to nominate a friend or colleague for our annual Business Person of the Year contest. Go here right now. The deadline for an online submission is Friday October 3 at noon. Your colleague can’t win unless nominated.

Sursum ad summum,

Daniel J. Vance