Mid Continent Nail plans $5M expansion, will hire 91

POPLAR BLUFF -- Mid Continent Nail in the Poplar Bluff Industrial Park has announced plans for a nearly $5 million expansion project and the hiring of 91 workers.

The firm will install a new line in its original 118,000-square-foot plant in the industrial park on the north side of Revere Plastics. Equipment has been ordered and will be installed as soon as possible.

Mid Continent Nail has 400 employees in its main nail manufacturing facility in the former Rowe Furniture building.

"This good news is really exciting to all of us," said Steve Halter, president of the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce and Poplar Bluff Industries. "The new jobs will be an additional $2.4 million annual payroll in our community."

In February 2012, Deacero US Inc., based in Monterrey, Mexico, purchased Mid Continent Nail and announced plans to increase production while adding 100 jobs. At that time, around 300 workers were employed.

In early December, Gov. Jay Nixon traveled to Poplar Bluff to meet with Raul Gutierrez, who owns the company. He gave the governor a tour of the plant.

"As part of this project, the Butler County Commission is seeking $1.8 million in community development block grant funding from the state for construction of an Industrial Park Road overpass over the Union Pacific railroad tracks," said Felicity Ray, executive director of the Ozark Foothills Regional Planning Commission. The planning commission is helping the county apply for the grant.

Halter reviewed the history of the company in a news release.

Mid Continent Nail Corporation, a division of Mid Continent Steel & Wire, began business in 1987 under the direction of David and Doug Libla. Initially, Mid Continent Nail focused on manufacturing machine-quality bulk pallet nails, Magnum Fasteners. Mid Continent Nail is the largest bulk pallet nail manufacturer in the United States and is the largest supplier of nails to the wooden pallet and crating industry with customers throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Mid Continent has, over the past several years, expanded its bulk nail manufacturing capacity through the addition of 50,000 square feet of production space. The company also added a 315,000-square-foot building in the Poplar Bluff Industrial Park across from the Bulk Nail Plant to expand its collated nail production, the wire drawing processes, trucking and dispatch center, and the company's offices. In February 2012, Deacero USA Inc. acquired Libla Industries Inc., dba Mid Continent Nail Corporation. Deacero, a family-owned company founded in 1952 in Monterrey, Mexico, is a leader in scrap processing, steel production and mesh and wire products manufacturing with a presence in more than 20 countries in America and Europe.