Konrad Corporation History

Konrad Corporation was incorporated by its founder, Ken Konrad, in 1967. Its beginning was very humble, located in the basement of an existing business in Lakeland, Minnesota. With a few machines and a lot of determination, he began selling his machining services. He continued working at it intermittently while he worked full time as a manufacturing engineer for a local firm.

Over the next several years, his fledgling business expanded its customer base to include North Star Steel in St. Paul, Minnesota. This proved to be the foundation of Konrad Corporation. With this customer as a base, Ken began to expand nationally to other mini mills. By 1976, the tremendous backlog he had acquired demanded his full time commitment.

The acquisition of more machinery and personnel led to the decision to purchase a 4,800 square foot building in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1977. At this location, Konrad Corporation developed a national reputation for quality machined products, competitive pricing and service to an industry that was unaccustomed to receiving support from its suppliers.

The demand for our expertise within the steel mill industry fueled the tremendous growth that we experienced during the next decade. Again, we were faced with the dilemma that we had outgrown our office and manufacturing space. A search for a larger facility began again.

In late July, 1986, ground was broken for a new building in Hudson, Wisconsin. By February 1987, Konrad Corporation was firmly established at the new location. The building was designed with several future expansion options to facilitate anticipated growth. During the summer of 1990, we used one of those options and doubled our manufacturing space to 26,000 square feet. The Hudson location will accommodate our continuing growth for many years.