SpecSys, Inc., a privately held contract engineering and manufacturing company headquartered in Montevideo, MN is pleased to announce that it has finished the acquisition of the former Caterpillar plant in Prentice, Wisconsin.

It was announced earlier this year that Caterpillar would be closing the plant due to economic conditions.

“SpecSys, Inc. and its parent company RITALKA, Inc. have valued and sought after rurally-located manufacturing for two decades now,” said Kevin Wald, CEO and founder of RITALKA, the parent company of SpecSys. “The Prentice, WI campus is a great addition to our capabilities and obviously allows for a nice step up in capacity.”

“We in the Village of Prentice are extremely happy and proud of RITALKA-Specsys operations purchasing the Prentice Cat operations,” said Prentice Industrial Development Corporation President Dale Heikkinen. “We want to thank the Wald family for considering Prentice and wish them success in the years to come.”

“The 220,000 square-foot facility is situated among a skilled and reliable workforce,” Wald said, “and that is one of its biggest assets.”

“The values you find in a rural work force have been a cornerstone of our companies from day one. While so many people expound how we cannot build anything in the USA anymore, RITALKA-SpecSys is so proud to add another rurally-based manufacturing location to our portfolio and prove them wrong. We thank Caterpillar for working with us to keep these rural jobs going, and we are proud to call Caterpillar our client.”

The Prentice manufacturing plant has existed since 1945. Under Caterpillar's management, it was used to make equipment for the forestry industry.

“SpecSys plans to continue manufacturing forestry machines there but also hopes to use the plant to further branch out to other industries that SpecSys serves, including mining, railroad, agriculture and energy,” Wald said.

The company has been working over the last several months to make the transition as seamless as possible. The acquisition included the building and grounds as well as the plant's manufacturing equipment, including robotic welders, large machining centers and plasma/laser cutting equipment.

For more information, visit www.specsys.org.

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