Stronghold Manufacturing, LLC
entering a new era with optimism
By Les Houser, Wright County Monitor

The Stronghold Manufacturing Company, at one time known as Palco, has been a fixture on the Clarion industrial scene for several years now. But something needed to be done with the company if it was to survive, or at least stay here in Clarion. Three gentlemen have now stepped forward to take on that challenge as the new owners and management team for the company.

Now to be known as Stronghold Manufacturing, LLC, partners Steve Keehn (corrected spelling from a previous story), Tom Hinschberger and Gerry Diers have purchased the equipment but not the buildings and property. In its heyday, the company had around 30 people working there but is currently at 16 employees.

“This building was originally manufacturing camper toppers,” said Hinschberger, who is from Belle Plaine and is the Stronghold sales distributor for Iowa. “Then Curt Palmer bought it, and it became Palco and manufactured farm related equipment.”

The home office was in Belle Plaine, where they produced hog equipment and cattle feed while the cattle and horse handling equipment was built here in Clarion. In 1995, Palmer sold the building, along with the cattle equipment manufacturing rights, to John Hagie while keeping the Belle Plaine location. Hagie was given the right to switch the name of the business to Palco by Hagie. It would later be changed to Stronghold by Hagie and then eventually just Stronghold. Hagie has since sold the property, sometime in the early 2000’s, to Scott Churchill of LeSeuer, Minnesota.

The company’s product lines are chutes, alleys, tubs and panels. “We are simply looking for now at improving what we have, through product development and redesign,” said Hinschberger, who has worked for all of the owners over the years. He also wants it known that they have no plans to move anywhere else. “The community has been good to this company, and we plan to stay here,” said Hinschberger.
“The workforce is already here,” said Diers, who is from Howard Lake, Minnesota and is the distributor in that state. “If you move you start over. We’re using a local bank for financing, a local attorney to handle the legal issues and local accountants to do our payroll. We would just as soon keep everything here.”

Keehn explains that the other two were already in the process of buying the business when he came into the picture. “I had worked under the previous owner for about six weeks,” said Keehn. “I had been in sales for Palco for ten years, but had then been away from this place for nine years. Since I would be a part owner, I also came in as the plant manager.”

In addition to Iowa, the company covers the Midwestern states of Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin. They also cover Indiana and Ohio, and have a dealer network for the northeastern states. “We would like to broaden it a little, but it takes time,” said Diers. “We get a lot of inquires from all over the United States,” added Keehn.

The new owners said that they don’t plan any big changes for now, and will just be concentrating on some improvements to existing products. “We might redesign our bigger chutes, and probably add a couple extra items we don’t have now,” said Hinschberger. “That will all be in the same line of cattle handling equipment.”

In 2001 a different company began making copies of a lot of Stronghold's chutes, alleys, tubs etc. They painted them red, named them Palco and presented themselves as the original company, generating business on our original name and reputation, as they are doing to this day. If you are looking at their equipment please remember that you are looking at a copy, built by a company that is presenting themselves as something they are not!

If you would like more information on any of their products, visit the website at www.strongholdmfg.com.