Celebrating Manufacturers!

6 Oct 2023

Brookings, SD - To kick off Manufacturing Week, the Brookings Chamber hosted a hop-on, hop-off tour of 6 local manufacturing businesses. Participants had the chance to see behind the scenes at Prince Manufacturing Corporation, SoDak Labs, Larson Manufacturing, Daktronics Inc., Falcon Plastics, and Twin City Fan & Blower. This event only marked the beginning of Manufacturing Week though!

From October 6^th to 13^th, the nation will continue celebrating manufacturing. With the second largest number of manufacturing jobs in the world, the US relies on this industry and South Dakota is no exception. In 2022, it was estimated that there were roughly 14 million manufacturing jobs nationwide, with South Dakota making up about 45,000 of those jobs. Although South Dakotans only make up 0.0027% of the nation's population, we cover 0.0032% of the nation's manufacturing jobs. To add to this, we have had the highest growth rate for manufacturing jobs in the nation with an increase of 9.5% in manufacturing jobs over the past decade.

The trends are similar in Brookings County where manufacturing jobs made up around 30% of the private sector jobs. These jobs come from around 47 different manufacturing businesses in the county. Although manufacturing businesses often focus on corporate customers, there are still ways to support your local manufacturers. Check out our ideas below!

Refer to the list of local manufacturers below and check out their websites and social media pages. This will help you understand their products as well as boost traffic on their pages.
After checking out their website and/or social media, think of people you might know who would be interested in their product. Share what you’ve learned about the company with businesses that might utilize their products!
Finally, as the manufacturing industry supplies so many jobs, there will often be open positions. Even if you are already in another sector, keep an eye on the job listings and share them with friend who might be interested.

We have compiled a list of some of the manufacturers in the Brookings area for you to explore:

Prince Manufacturing Corporation
SoDak Labs
Larson Manufacturing
Daktronics Inc.
Falcon Plastics
Twin City Fan & Blower
Belbrand
3M
Rainbow Play Systems

For more information on the companies who participated in the tour event, check out the Chambers video series on the manufacturers, available here.

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