Burlington sees more business diversity in the area

DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) – Local businesses can have a significant impact and can sometimes difference. Jeremy Hess, Director of Economic Development at the Greater Burlington Partnership says he feels the area is moving in a positive business direction and has become more diverse.

“I would describe the business climate as as strong and growing. We have been very fortunate in in Greater Burlington to have not only our what I would call our legacy employers who have continued to go strong for many, many years. But we have many new businesses that have moved to the area from outside of Iowa. Some from Illinois, some from Nebraska, some from even further away”

One of the businesses contributing to the diversity of local businesses is the Case New Holland Industrial Plant, which is well-known in the community and has been around for many years.

“So CNH isn’t t just a construction company. We’re also a global provider of ag and construction equipment. So we also have the ag business that you often see as Case IH red, and then we have New Holland yellow. So you’ll see a lot of our ag company run our ag equipment in the fields,” said Braden Manning, CNH Plant Manager.

Manning says one piece of equipment that eventually became popular was created in Burlington Iowa in 1957.

“Elton long invented the very first tractor-loader backhoe in the world. It wasn’t only invented here, but we also started manufacturing here as well, which later became and prospered to our other products,” said Manning.

Not only do they have diversity in their products Manning says diversity in the workplace is also important.

“We actually have five generations in the workforce, and we look at diversity of our workforce, to almost 20% of our workforce is comprised of females which, which we’re continually trying to grow that female workforce and promote within. And we’ve seen, we’ve seen some great success with that. And really, the team has embraced that challenge and, and we enjoy that,” said Manning.

Another company that has made a significant impact in Burlington is Sterzings Food Company. They are known for their original salted potato chip. Co-owner Craig Smith says they are the only potato chip manufacturer in the state.

“The original founder was Barney Sterzing. He was candy maker back in the 1930s. And we believe he founded Sterzings potato chips around 1933. He did that to offset his candy business. And so in the summertime when his chocolate would melt he began selling and distributing potato chips during World War two during rationing, he lost the ability to get sugar. And so the potato chips were able to continue. And he phased out of the candy business,” said Smith.

Smith says the company now carries multiple flavors of chips and popcorn. He also says the hard work over the years has made their chips known across the nation

“We love being Iowa’s only potato chip manufacturer, the idea that we have something exclusive, and something very unique to the state draws a lot of attention for us. People comment about us, when they take their product with them, they like to share a little bit of Iowa, when they are vacationing in Florida or Colorado, we love to see pictures of our bags of chips that travel with people and so we we often get photographs of people who have taken our sterling’s to to the beach in California or on a mountain top and out west,” said Smith.

Justin Curtis is the operations manager at Sterzings Food Company, he says for the company’s goal is to continue to provide a quality chip for their customers. “The people who support services are very passionate about them. I mean, from someone who isn’t local, and came here to me it’s potato chip assault on it. To them. It’s the memories of their past the memories of their childhood, the memories of their families, picnics parties, stuff like that. I mean, taste has a memory and I think our fans cling to that more than anything,” said Curtis.

Earlier in 2024, officials said Burlington would soon get an Amazon facility in the area. Since making that announcement in March, the Greater Burlington Partnerships staff says the area will soon get a Chick-fil-A. Hess says he feels companies that have been around for many years have paved the way for new opportunities.

“I think the, the impact of an amazon and a Chick-fil- a Amazon’s a little different. I don’t want to say it’s cosmetic. I think it’s an indication that Burlington is increasingly being on the radar of large companies. But to be honest with you, it’s it’s our, our larger manufacturers and so forth, that provide the base for income and employment, because it’s those people that work hard, they get a paycheck, then they go in, they order things or they go out, they have money to go out to dinner, and so forth. So if we didn’t have the base of employment and great, you know, manufacturing here, we would never see the Chick-fil-A or the Amazon,” said Hess

Hess says with the new momentum the goal is to keep moving forward.

“I think our our biggest challenge is to grow our population and our workforce. I think that is the biggest challenge. We see a lot of people retiring. I mean, we’re just in that in that stage right now. And so, but it is, there’s just there’s never a one shot answer, it’s you have to do all of the above, we’re gonna grow business. But business needs workers to grow. And for workers, we need population. So it’s all interconnected,” said Hess.

Hess says the Greater Burlington Partnership currently has multiple initiatives in place to address the city’s future goals

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