Politics & Government

Proto Labs Off to "Fantastically Good Start" in Rosemount

City, county, regional and state business leaders were on hand as Rosemount rolled out the green ribbon to officially welcome Proto Labs to town on Tuesday.

You may have noticed Rosemount Mayor Bill Droste exuding just slightly more positivity than is his usual norm on Tuesday.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled,” Droste said prior to Tuesday night’s city council meeting.

His smile was still spread wide even hours after leading a ceremony earlier in the day to officially welcome .

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“Last fall when I first heard about the potential expansion of Proto Labs to this site, I can tell you, it is the type of news every community is seeking with the current economy,” the mayor said prior to the ceremonial ribbon-cutting at Proto Lab’s new 129,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in the former Webb Cos. building at the corner of Highway 3 and County Road 42.

The Maple Plain-based company, one of the in the state, has said it anticipates adding approximately 300 jobs within the next three years to the Rosemont site and is already hiring at a rapid clip. Proto Labs currently has approximately 70 employees at new facility and is still hiring.

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“We’re thrilled to be here,” said Proto Labs CEO Brad Cleveland. “We love being in Rosemount and we’re off to a fantastically good start.”

Proto Labs started in 1999 and has since grown to encompass ten facilities spread over three continents. A new facility in Tokyo, Japan was also opened earlier in 2012.

The company also has a manufacturing facility in the U.K. and sales and customer service centers in Germany and France.

Proto Labs utilizes unique, proprietary 3-D computer software to allow customers to submit designs for custom plastic parts. Those parts can be utilized for prototyping, market evaluation, testing or small production runs of an endless array of end products.

“We do in days what conventional suppliers do in weeks or months,” Cleveland told the crowd of local, regional and state business leaders that turned out to welcome his company to Rosemount. “We’re literally the fastest in the world at doing CNC machining and injection molding.” 

That revolutionary process has helped propel Proto Labs’ meteoric rise in the industry, from a 300 square-foot start-up, to a $100 million publicly-traded company (PRLB). And still expanding.

“We may have a tendency to focus on larger businesses,” Droste said in reference to communities’ attempts to attract jobs. “In today’s environment, it is the small and medium-sized businesses that is providing the recovery we’re seeing in our country.”

Michael Langley, CEO of Greater MSP, echoed the mayor’s statement.

“Eighty percent of the job growth in this region over the next five years we estimate will be from businesses that are already here and growing in the region,” he said.

Langley said and the surrounding region are ripe for helping those businesses expand, and Proto Labs is a prime example of that recipe for growth.

“This is a great place to invest, a great area to find talented people, great business parks and great communities,” said Langley. “You picked a great community with great leaders and great workers in this area.”

Indeed, Proto Labs promises to infuse Rosemount with a burst of stable new jobs. And the proximity of Dakota County Technical College could conveniently help fuel workers for the new facility helping to create another possible win-win for the area. Some jobs do require previous technical education, the company said, but on-the-job training is also available for a number of positions the company has available. Average wages at the Rosemount facility reach into the high teens per hour according to a company spokesman.

Proto Labs' purchase and occupation of the Webb Cos. building that had sat on the market for more than three years could also help attract further business expansion to the area. 

“We have plenty more room available should you need to expand further,” quipped Droste, pointing to the open 40 acres of industrial park land across the street that the city is still actively marketing.

Construction on that land by another business may give city officials reason to smile soon enough, but on Tuesday, their smiles were reserved solely for Proto Labs.

“On behalf of the City of Rosemount, welcome to Rosemount,” said Droste. “We wish you much success.”


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