NATDA Magazine Nov/Dec Nov2018Mag_FINAL | Page 12

Midsota Manufacturing is 2018 Small Business of the Year Joel Bauer and Tim Burg, owners of Midsota Manufacturing in Avon, have been selected as the 2018 St. Cloud Area Small Business Owners of the Year. The award is presented annually by the St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce. Bauer and Burg have ambitious growth plans for Midsota, which builds commercial and retail trailers. An obvious manifestation of those plans is a new, 30,000 square-foot sandblasting, paint and finishing facility, the remodel of a welding facility, and a new office space. The two men have owned the company since 2008. Back then, they produced about 600 trailers per year with 18 employees. Today, the company produces 2,600 trailers per year and has 110 employees. After weathering the recession – by cutting hours, not employees – Midsota has experienced steady growth. In addition to expanding their retail and service space and adding a cold storage warehouse, Midsota added a 50,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in 2014. “I never thought we’d fill it,” Burg said, “but now, three years later, we were busting at the seams.” For more information, visit www.midsotamfg.com. Bauer and Burg are always on the lookout for the next new thing in trailer design. Their goal, according to Bauer, is to arrive at their annual national trailer tradeshow with something new every year. “We pride ourselves on staying on the cutting edge,” Bauer said. Bauer and Berg were honored at the Chamber’s annual business awards luncheon earlier this summer. 12 NATDA Magazine www.natda.org