Cardinal to Expand Truck Scale Plant

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Cardinal Scale Manufacturing Co.

An expansion of the plant at Cardinal Scale Manufacturing Co. is on schedule, a company official said.

Jonathan Sabo, vice president of marketing, said the 60,000-square-foot addition is slated for a June 1 completion. The expansion primarily is for production of the company's truck scale manufacturing, Sabo said.

The company mainly manufactures the truck scales for American industries but does have 50 each in Iraq and Iceland, Sabo said.

"They’re typically used to weigh full semi-tractor-trailers and dump trucks," he said. "And they are typically used in agriculture, solid waste, metal recycling and aggregates."



Sabo said establishing an expanded space for the truck scale will allow the company to reduce overhead and give other departments more room by consolidating their locations.

"When we were founded in 1950, like a lot of companies, our company grew and expanded over time, and our production facilities kind of sprouted out and grew in different directions," Sabo said. "So our production flow wasn’t as streamlined as we would like it.

"The construction expansion is necessary in order for us to grow as a company and to become more efficient in our production work flows. We also need the additional space for additional manufacturing and stocking storage and that’s to help with the record number of product launches we’ve been experiencing."

The expansion will bring Cardinal Scale's manufacturing plant to about 350,000 square feet, Sabo said.

Cardinal Scale was founded in Webb City, Missouri, in 1950 by William Perry. The company was created under an agreement with Webb Co., which made and sold heavy-duty industrial scales and mining equipment. The plan called for Webb Co., where Perry worked at the time, to market the new, lighter-capacity scales that would be built at Cardinal Scale.

The need for newer and more efficient weight systems grew out of the nation’s post-World War II construction boom, and soon the new Cardinal Scale became so successful that by 1956 Perry resigned from the Webb Co. in order to devout his full attention to Cardinal Scale.

Over the years, the company would acquire companies such as the Detecto Scale Co. that allowed Cardinal Scale to expand its reach. Today, Cardinal Scale primarily makes large-capacity scales and systems, while Detecto Scale is concentrated on smaller scales used in the medical, food service and postal industries.

The manufacturing plant expansion at Cardinal Scale will add about 60,000 square feet, bringing the total to 350,000. Company officials were not disclosing the project's cost.