Morton Buildings cuts the ribbon on a new manufacturing plant in the Gate City
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POCATELLO — A national construction company cut the ribbon on its newest facility, located in the Pocatello/Chubbuck area.
The new 67,429-square-foot manufacturing plant is now open in the Pocatello Regional Airport Business Park. On Tuesday, community members gathered to watch President and CEO Sean Cain cut the ribbon, commemorating the facility’s opening.
“We’re very excited about the opening of our new Pocatello facility, which will enable us to continue meeting the building needs of this region that we’ve been proud to serve for over 10 years,” Cain said.
Morton Buildings is a 120-year-old post-frame construction company based out of Illinois. Post-frame construction differs from a stick-built structure by having load-bearing posts that extend directly into the ground rather than having load-bearing walls.
The facility in Pocatello is Morton’s eighth manufacturing plant and will stock the businesses’s construction projects in Idaho, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and other surrounding areas so that current and future building needs are met.
“This represents growth for our company,” Cain said. “We’re excited to be able to continue to expand and provide the service to the customers that are in demand for our product out here in the northwest area.”
This plant currently employs thirty people, which Morton expects will increase over time as demand increases.
Cain spoke highly of the company’s employee-owned model, saying that the company is 100% employee-owned.
“This new facility supports broadened career development opportunities for the company’s employee-owners, and we are excited to expand our employee ownership group in the area,” Cain said.
When Cain said, “the community owns this facility,” what he means is, “the people that work there, the people that produce there live in the community, and they’re the owners.”
Cain said Morton employees own stock in the company, so as the value of Morton’s stock increases, it directly benefits the workforce. He said when a Morton employee reaches retirement age and sells their stock, they see more wealth on top of what the company paid them.
“There’s a sense of pride and there’s a sense of literal ownership in the way people perform day to day. How they execute their duties in the back of their mind tends to make these types of companies perform better,” Cain said.
As the company is celebrating its 120th anniversary, Cain said opening this plant is significant for the company and its employee-owners.
“It’s a very important milestone for us to have reached as an organization because of what it represents,” Cain said.
For Morton Buildings, it represents that the company is growing and has a strong future ahead of it.