Brenner Tank Begins Work on Expansion

Brenner Tank LLC is embarking on construction of a 9,200-square-foot addition valued at about $1.4 million.

The new addition will include administrative offices and eventually open the way for 20 new jobs, said company Controller Todd Schaefer. A groundbreaking ceremony was held Thursday.

“By putting purchasing, engineering, inside sales team, accounting, and IT (Information Technology) all in one building, it will improve communication and make us a more effective company,” he said. “And over the next two years we hope to create about 20 new positions — both administrative and production-related.”

The company, which is located at 450 Arlington Ave., was founded in 1900. Brenner manufactures transport trailers for products including food, chemicals and petroleum.

A Fond du Lac-based company, Brenner employs about 225 people locally and another 75 at other facilities in Wisconsin, Kentucky, Texas and Tennessee.

“We mainly serve the chemical and sanitary markets,” Schaefer said.

Hoffman LLC, an Appleton-based firm that offers planning, architectural and engineering design, and management services, is handling the expansion, said Anne Bird, Hoffman spokesperson.

Schaefer said the expansion carries a price tag of close to $1.4 million. Though the company financed much of the project on its own, it also received a little local assistance.

“We got low-interest loans through the city and the county,” he said. “The Revolving Loan Funds keep money and jobs in the community.”

Acting City Manager Wayne Rollin, who also serves as director of Community Development, said all the funding for Revolving Loan Funds starts out as federal money and does not come out of taxpayers’ pockets.

“The city has had the funds for about 20 years,” Rollin said. “The county has had them for a couple of years.”

The loans are used to stimulate local economic development.

“It’s a great government program,” Rollin said. “It does assist with companies like Brenner, which has a long history in the community of providing family-support jobs. If we can help them, it’s in the community’s best interests.”

Schaefer agrees.

“It’s good for us and good for the community,” he said.