Employees at Bauer Built in Paton have received notification their employment with the company will end Dec. 31. Effective Jan. 1, the large majority of them will become employees of Kloeckner Metals Corporation, KMC. The notification was sent to 51 employees in production and 11 salaried and administrative employees. The notice was sent as required by the Iowa Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
KMC intends to maintain the status quo and target new customers, according to Greene County Development director Greg Piklapp.
Bauer Built Manufacturing opened in 1982. Vaughn Bauer originally repaired and improved machinery for area farmers. He built a 12-row, 30-inch planter for his own farming operation in the late 1980s. He continued to design and manufacture planter bars, with the size and customization increasing.
Bauer Built’s relationship with John Deere & Co began in 2002. Bauer continued designing and developing larger and more innovative ways to plant row crops. By 2013, Bauer Built was manufacturing planters as wide as 120 feet, employing 150 persons, and selling internationally through the John Deere network. At that time the family sold the Bauer Built plant to John Deere and Co.
Bauer soon built a 300,000- square foot manufacturing facility across the road from the John Deere plant and continued fabricating and manufacturing innovative proprietary products and contracted custom manufactured items. It is that facility and business KMC purchased. Kloeckner Metals Corporation is based in Roswell, GA. It was founded in 2011 with the merger of Macsteel Service Centers USA and Namasco. It was rated a top workplace by USA Today in 2024.
