A Mead tool manufacturer with a long history has big plans for growth as its parent company plans to increase manufacturing at the site.
Rupes, an Italian maker of electric and pneumatic power tools, sanders, polishers and vacuum systems, last week announced that more of its tools would be manufactured at the company’s U.S. headquarters at 14320 Longs Peak Court in Mead.
The company employs 12 people locally, and 17 worldwide.
“Now we’re only building two of a catalog of hundreds of Rupes tools,” marketing manager Dylan von Kleist said. “We’ll be building four of them by end of year, and as things progress we’ll be building more and more.
Von Kleist said the company anticipates doubling its manufacturing work force over the next few years and either adding onto the 24,000-square-foot facility, in the business park at the northeast corner of Interstate 25 and Colorado 66, or building a new one.
“At the rate we’re growing, 20-25 percent year-over-year, it’s almost an inevitability we’re going to expand,” he said.
Rupes, a family-owned Italian company since 1947, established its local presence in .
Founded in 1952, Cyclo gained notoriety within the automotive industry for its dual head polisher, used on cars, boats, campers and airplanes. The operation was moved to Longmont from Denver in 2003 when Cody and Carolyn Sutherland purchased the company.
Cyclo Toolmakers still operates in the space, under the Rupes nameplate.
“We’re absolutely going to stay in the area. We’ve hired some of the biggest names in auto detailing, reconditioning,” he said, “and keeping proximity to where our employees live is very important.”
