Metal manufacturing company to open a Floyd County location

By Mary Pieper, Special to the Charles City Press

A southeast Iowa metal manufacturing company is planning to open a second location near Charles City by the end of the year to expand its customer service area.

Metal Wholesale LLC’s new Charles City location will have a crew of five at first, but will expand to 30 employees or more during the next five years, according to Darin Westhoff, general manager for the Bloomfield-based company.

“It’s going to be a nice opportunity for us,” he said.

Preliminary site work is already underway along the Avenue of the Saints next to Fox Woodcraft.

Metal Wholesale, which sells sheet metal directly to lumberyards, was founded by brothers Abram and Wilson Weiler in 2015 in Bloomfield. Its products include metal panels used for roofs, siding, soffits, trim, skylights and other building construction uses, as well as nails, screws, flashing and sealants.

The company currently delivers to lumberyards throughout Iowa and Missouri, half of Illinois, and small portions of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Kansas, according to Westhoff.

Metal Wholesale makes deliveries in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This means orders placed by noon on Tuesday and Thursday can be delivered to lumberyards the next day, while orders placed by noon on Friday can be delivered on Monday.

By expanding into Charles City, Metal Wholesale will be able to deliver not only within a 4½-hour radius of Bloomfield, but also within a 4½-hour radius of Charles City, “which covers a large portion of Wisconsin and Minnesota,” Westhoff said.

The Weiler brothers had planned to build their second location at Charles City from the beginning, according to Westhoff.

Brandon Fox, who owns Fox Woodcraft, is also a Metal Wholesale dealer.

“Our businesses will be right next to each other,” Westhoff said.

The Charles City facility will be identical to the one in Bloomfield, according to Westhoff.

The Charles City Area Development Corp. has agreed to give Metal Wholesale a $16,800 forgivable loan.

The Floyd County Board of Supervisors is considering extending an Urban Revitalization District to include the site of the new facility that would provide a three-year, 100% property tax exemption development incentive.

A public hearing on the proposed plan will be held at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, July 14, at the supervisors meeting at the courthouse.

The Metal Wholesale company includes a separate trucking business to deliver its products. The company currently has 31 employees at its Bloomfield location, including the truck drivers.

The company has achieved tremendous sales growth during its first five years, according to Westhoff.

“The (COVID-19) pandemic has not really impacted us at this time,” he said.