Bowling Green company breaks ground on a nearly $18M expansion

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – On Thursday, August 5th, one Bowling Green based company celebrated a $17.8 million investment. Company leaders broke ground at the Bilstein Cold Rolled Steel LP campus in Bowling Green.

This expansion will create a new 8,500-square-foot facility in the Kentucky Transpark in addition to its existing 105,000-square-foot operation.

The project will feature the installation of new equipment, including batch annealing furnaces, and upgrades to existing equipment to increase production capacity of high-performance, cold-rolled steel strips.

Bilstein opened this existing facility in 2017, currently employing 86 hard workers in the city.

Bilstein president and CEO Brent Wilson said they plan on looking for about 25 new positions over the course of the next year on both the operator and the administrative sides.

Wilson said he hopes the jobs will fill quickly despite Kentucky being the third worst state in the country when it comes to the national work-force labor shortage. 

“The number of people looking for jobs are very few, so there’s really a battle going on, a challenge of how can we source in more people to this area. I think long-term, this is great. Short term, it’s just a challenge that all companies have to face in order to come together,” said Wilson.

CEO and President of the Chamber of Commerce Ron Bunch said he hopes job opportunities like these will incentivize Kentuckians to rejoin the workforce. 

“We’re working on some of those public policy measures with state leaders. I’m trying to address that, so our hope is that that will start heading folks back into employment, so that all of our companies like Bilstein can have an easier time hiring people,” said Bunch.

Tomorrow has it it’s own troubles. Wilson won’t let that thought keep him down. The groundbreaking, after all, was a day for celebration.

“I think, you know, too often, we don’t take a second to step back to smell the roses, right, and really celebrate the moment. So, this morning was really just a moment to say, ‘You know, let’s celebrate this expansion. It’s nearly a $20 million investment. It’s 25 people, careers that are going to be launched out for the next 12 months.’ And, we just wanted to let everybody be part of that. Give our gratefulness back to the community, and all the locals that I’ve helped us achieve this big milestone for the small company,” said Wilson.

People looking to apply can do so by visiting their company website.