The Seward rail campus will soon have a new tenant.
WCR Incorporated will break ground on its new facility Monday, June 20, with plans to be fully operational by November.
WCR builds and services plate and frame heat exchangers. A heat exchanger takes thermal energy from one source and moves it to another.
Jeff Newman, a company vice president, said Seward will be its ninth location in the United States, filling a gap in its service area.
WCR Incorporated, which has existed since 1980, has locations in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, California, Arizona, Texas and Washington. Its headquarters are in Fairborn, Ohio.
“WCR is a welcome additino to the Seward Rail Campus,” Jonathan Jank, president and CEO of the Seward County Chamber and Development Partnership, said. “Their company has been a leader in the heat exchanger industry for 40-plus years, and this expansion project is ideal for them to grow in their Midwest service territory. They will be providing new and diverse job opportunities within Seward County. We thank WCR for choosing to invest in and further develop our local economy.”
Newman said the company started looking at expansion in Nebraska several years ago. Representatives heard about Seward from different sources – Brian Vasa of Nebraska Public Power District, Kris Benson of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development and Troy Bridgford of Iron Hide Construction.
Originally, WCR considered Omaha and then Lincoln. Then it heard about Seward’s rail campus.
“Jonathan Jank (Seward County Chamber and Development Partnership) was very instrumental,” Newman said. “Seward was very accommodating. It was almost a no brainer.”
“Seward came looking for us,” Nathan Foster said. Foster will run the Seward site.
The Seward location will include offices and a warehouse for parts and plate refurbishment, Newman said.
“It will be a beautiful location,” he said.
The facility will be designed for potential future expansion, he said. WCR will employ 15 people to begin with and hopes to have 20 Seward employees within two years, Newman said.
WCR manufactures parts for almost all the major plate heat exchange original equipment manufacturers. Some of their customers include ethanol and ag producers, with the majority of customers being in goods production of some kind.
“We span the world,” Newman said. “We have replacement parts for any brand, and we can custom design parts and equipment.”
The manufacturing is done in Ohio within an hour of WCR’s headquarters. Foster said WCR is the largest plate and gasket manufacturer in the United States.
“Made in the USA is important to us,” he said.
“We leverage that a lot. People like that,” Newman said.
WCR also services existing systems. Staff can clean, test and repair heat exchange systems,
Newman has been with WCR almost since its beginnings in 1980. He started out as a customer, a maintenance supervisor at an agricultural company.
“They treated us well with replacement parts and education,” he said.
Today he is one of WCR’s vice presidents.
Foster is beginning his fifth year with WCR. He said the first thing he will do is look for an inside salesperson to service the west central region from the Seward service center.
The goal is to be in operation by November, Foster said.
Safety is important at WCR, Newman said. The company is preapproved through almost all large third-party safety regulators.
“We are built around safety, for both our employees and our customers,” Newman said.
Newman thanked everyone involved for their help.
“We are very excited to be an active member of the Seward community,” he said.
