New steel tube mill helps position manufacturer for future

Feb. 24, 2020

This paid piece is sponsored by the Minnehaha County Economic Development Association.

Just north of Sioux Falls, a family-owned manufacturing company has expanded by opening a steel tube mill to serve customers in the region.

Northern Plains Tube and Steel brings diversification to Sunderman Manufacturing at the Baltic exit on Interstate 29 and offers a supply of tubing that owner Paul Sundermann said is rare to find in this area. The mill’s space, with a 180-foot integrated production line, is more than double the size of the parent company’s manufacturing floor.

“There are some mills around, but they don’t do what we’re doing,” Sundermann said. The closest mills geographically are at least eight hours away, he said. A local example of a company that makes a similar product for its own internal use is Adams Thermal Systems in Canton.

Sundermann is the second-generation owner of the company that his father, Henry, started in 1952 in Sioux Falls on B Avenue, between Russell Street and the airport. The second “n” in the company name was dropped when it was incorporated. Paul’s son, Cody, also has joined the business and will be the general manager of production. His father will be in charge of sales and said the company can be competitive in a 300-mile radius.

Paul Sundermann, owner at right, and his son, Cody, have started Northern Plains Tube and Steel north of Sioux Falls.

The production in the new plant starts with a ribbon of steel that comes off a large spool and fills a pool-like area that is then fed into equipment that shapes, welds, cools and cuts the tube.

The plant makes round and square tubes in different sizes. At the end of the process, each piece is sent down a roller to be automatically stacked onto a cart. The state-of-the-art equipment includes a computer-activated saw that cuts the tubing to length.

Steel enters the manufacturing process as a ribbon of metal that is formed into tubing.

The final product is trucked from Northern Plains to customers who will use the product in their manufacturing.

The company will cross-train its six manufacturing employees to work in both the original production area and the mill. Eventually, the company may add a handful of employees as business grows, Sundermann said.

Parent company Sunderman Manufacturing will continue to build SunDair forced-air heaters for the horticulture industry and other products Sundermann has developed for the livestock industry, including calving pens under the Box S brand.

The company also has done custom fabrication and welding since it opened and does private repair work and private-label manufacturing for bigger companies. “That’s become a bigger part of our business now,” Sundermann said.

One of the reasons Sundermann decided to expand with a tube mill is that sometimes his own company couldn’t find the product it needed.

In addition, after the recession of 2008-10, he had to make some decisions to cut costs, Sundermann said. “Those were some pretty tough years,” a time when he wondered if the business would make it as he watched other companies close.

“When Cody came in, we started looking at different ways to diversify the company. We knew with some of our product line we were starting to lose market share,” Sundermann said.

Up until that point, “I always thought we would just kind of stay with what we were doing. It’s amazing what the good Lord and fate has in store,” he said.

Rather than dying as a business, they started planning for growth and a significant investment.

“We needed to find something that would take us to that next level. We wanted to find that opportunity that we weren’t going to have to take business away from other manufacturers in the region,” he said.

A company such as Sundermann’s is important to rural Minnehaha County areas such as Baltic, said Mike Wendland, Baltic city administrator and board president of the Minnehaha County Economic Development Association. For starters, even though the business is outside of the Baltic city limits, it brings name recognition to a community and shows that growth is happening, he said.

In addition, more people might eat at the local cafe or buy gas at the local convenience store. As an example, Cody Sundermann’s wife also has opened a child care center in the community.

“Eventually, hopefully the business grows. Potentially that could mean employees buy houses in the community and kids go to school. That’s the definition of economic development,” Wendland said.

The Sundermanns hope their expansion prepares their family business for the next generation.

Sundermann, 55, grew up the youngest of 10 children working at his dad’s business since age 12. In 1985, he formally joined the company, which moved to the Baltic exit two years later.

Without Cody coming into the business, Sundermann isn’t sure he would have expanded. But his son provides the help he needs to grow. “It’s a big undertaking,” Sundermann said. “What we’re doing, this is a big commitment.”

For his son, 33, the path to the family business included a manufacturing engineering degree from South Dakota State University in 2010 and experience at another local manufacturing company, Rosenbauer, a firetruck manufacturer in Lyons. He appreciates being the third generation to continue the dream his grandfather started.

“Not everybody gets to work in a family business,” Cody Sundermann said. “I always kind of thought I would end up back here. It’s been a good experience for me. I’ve always enjoyed the work.”

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New steel tube mill helps position manufacturer for future

“We needed to find something that would take us to that next level.” This manufacturer found it by creating a product it struggled to find.

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