by Andrea Palmer
LISSMAC Corp., a German company that builds machines for metal processing, has outgrown its Waterford location and is moving headquarters to Mechanicville.
The new facility will be built by Bast Hatfield in two phases. The building will be 31,000 square feet.
Ingo Heiland is vice president of the U.S. division, overseeing sales and distribution in the U.S., Central and South America.
The company also has one representative each in Brazil and Canada. The European division continues to expand, with offices in China, Sweden and Dubai.
“We are building up the headquarters of North and South America,” said Heiland. “With growing, I like to keep all the people who work for me. So we’ve stayed in upstate New York … We get offers to move south at least once a month, but then we would lose many of our trained and reliable employees.”
The parent company was founded in 1979 in Germany. Eventually, the company realized construction equipment needed more treatment to avoid rust damage. From that realization was born the metal division. The metal division created machines to remove area of roughness produced in cutting or shaping metal, remove oxide after cutting surface grounding, and fabricate sheet metal.
The metal division, started in the U.S. in 2009, generates the majority of the company’s revenue. The construction division moved to the U.S. two years ago.
Long-term plans for LISSMAC are to continue expansion in manufacturing in the U.S.
“We are definitely going to stay in upstate New York and expand here. We want to create more work space and increase the workforce in this area.”
“Most of our machines are imported from Germany,” said Heiland. “We sell and service them in the U.S. Our long-term plan is to do most of the fabrication in America for the market in America. The market is slightly different than the European market. The customer requirements are a little different and the patience level is very different.
“In Europe, it’s common to wait 22 to 35 weeks until a machine is ready. Americans are not as patient. They want an order for something to produce right away. That’s why we need space to warehouse machines, and assemble them here.”
LISSMAC Corp. imports machines produced by the parent company located in Germany. The machines are assembled in the U.S. and utilize American parts.
LISSMAC is located on Route 146 in Mechanicville, in a new 60-acre business park owned by Abele Builders Inc.
