Shakopee, Minn. — Cherne Industries, part of the Oatey Co. family of brands, recently completed a historic move of its headquarters and manufacturing operations—its first in more than 60 years—to a newly constructed, 130,000-sq.-ft. facility located in Shakopee, situated 25 miles southwest of downtown Minneapolis.
Opened in March, the manufacturing portion of the new, state-of-the-art headquarters was built to Cherne’s exacting specifications by the OPUS Group, as management sought to more fully integrate all its operations under one roof. Shakopee combines automated robotic manufacturing pneumatic pipe plugs, mechanical pipe plugs and testing equipment with a new research and development laboratory for product testing, extensive customer training facilities, and an in-house machine shop for making all the needed tooling on premises, rather than depending upon outside sources.
“Cherne has been growing at a double-digit pace for the past seven years,” says General Manager and seven-year company veteran David Biron, explaining why the former, 66,000-sq.-ft. facility in nearby Edina was no longer suitable. “We had acquired some robotic equipment and other automation components in recent years, but as the business grew, we simply ran out of space.”
