“Growth” would be an appropriate word to describe Josh Granere’s tenure with Peerless Products, as well as the company itself. The Iola plant manager began with the window manufacturing company nearly 15 years ago in the fall of 2009, starting on the night shift paint line in Fort Scott and working his way up through the ranks and departments.
In 2020, the Moran native was named plant manager of the Iola facility.
Peerless was founded in Fort Scott in 1952 and expanded with the addition of a plant in Nevada, Mo., in 2019.
In just under four years, the Iola branch is now planning to add a thermal department to its production as well as more assembly lines.
The only hitch to that forecast is employee retention, he said.
“We’ve got a lot of good folks here right now,” he said. “Even though we’re not a new company, we are a new facility. It takes some time to build up a head count.”
The facility has approximately 60 employees with three recent hires.
Granere said the door is open for at least a third more employees.
THE FORT SCOTT location currently handles a process where aluminum is “thermally broken.” The term is used in the window manufacturing industry to describe a window’s construction. It means that you manufacture the aluminum frame to have an interior and exterior side joined by a barrier. The barrier helps inhibit conductive thermal energy loss.
“It helps prevent the transfer of outside air,” explained Granere.
Iola now has a machine to complete this process and is awaiting the arrival of a transformer to begin utilizing the new thermal department. Granere hopes the addition of the department will help streamline production at the facility.
When the plant first opened, the building was shared with Gates Manufacturing as a tenant for the first couple years. “Last year, around June, is when we dissolved that,” said Granere. This has created the opportunity for Peerless to add more assembly lines in the extra space. The plant has one assembly line in operation and plans to add a second one this year. “Eventually, we’d like to get up to six or eight lines,” he added. “That’s long-term — it’s not going to happen overnight.”
The addition of the assembly lines means job creation. By the end of 2024, Granere hopes to have increased the facility’s employee count to 85 or 90. This would allow a third line to be created, he noted. With the dream of adding even more lines beyond this year, this could mean consistent job growth for the Iola community.
THE IOLA branch was opened initially to meet the window needs of low-rise or commercial sized buildings. Since opening, however, it has taken on some much larger projects. It isn’t unusual for the Iola plant to work on projects for 40- or 50-story buildings.
Granere noted they are currently working on a project for the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and have also completed a big project in Boston.
