President Kevin Ignacio of Marion Body Works joins this week’s episode of the NEW Manufacturing Insights podcast to talk about the 120-year-old manufacturing company that has been owned by his family since 1980. The business that started out making milk wagons now manufactures commercial van bodies, custom cabs for fire truck chassis manufacturers, all-aluminum fire apparatus and more.
On this Draft Day episode, Ignacio talks with co-hosts Kate Bruns of Insight on Manufacturing and Ann Franz of the NEW Manufacturing Alliance about the career path that led him back to the family business he’s been around with his whole life — including following the family rule to work somewhere else first, the challenges of handing down a business through three generations, and the pros and cons of running a business in a small community like Marion, Wisconsin. (The company currently has locations in both Marion and Shawano.)
And while talent attraction is a challenge for Marion Body Works, like it is for most businesses across the region, Ignacio says the plus side of being located in a small place is the company’s ability to make a difference.
“Because we’re a large employer in a small community, we can really have an impact on the community,” he says.
This week’s episode, like all April episodes of NEW Manufacturing Insights, is sponsored by Werner Electric Supply.
Listen to this week’s full podcast episode, produced by B.J. DeGroot of Woodward Community Media, on Spreaker or anywhere you listen to podcasts. New episodes are released on Thursdays.
