BERONJA

Journal Staff Writer

K.I. SAWYER — A major Marquette County manufacturer has the art of business down flat.

Superior Extrusion Inc., which creates aluminum products that are shaped by being pressed thorugh a die, hosted an open house on June 2 at its K.I. Sawyer plant to celebrate 25 years in business, its fourth completed press and a new road name.

The company was founded in 1996. It has been operating out of the K.I. Sawyer plant since that time.

According to the company’s website, SEI provides customers with solid, hollow and semihollow aluminum shapes in various lengths.

SEI produces aluminum shapes needed to make vehicle parts, docks, trailers, and boats and a variety of other products.

The company also offers other extrusion services including deburring, miter cutting and drilling.

Since the company’s origin, SEI has gone through three major operation expansions.

The company completed its first extrusion on Dec. 15, 1998, on its original 1,650-ton, 7-inch Ferrell hydraulic press. As demand increased, SEI added a 9-inch, 2,500-ton Youngstown press in 2009. In 2018, SEI added its third press, a 7-inch, 2,000-ton Extral press.

Now in 2023, SEI President and Chairman of the Board George LaBlonde III said SEI has completed its fourth press.

“This is a 25-year celebration, it’s the completion of press four and we’re also getting up to 500 million pounds that we’ve produced over 25 years,” LaBlonde said. “We’re happy to do it. We’re glad to have our vendors, our contractors. We have some clients that are here (at the celebration) and then also our employees and shareholders.”

The celebration also included the naming of the new road leading to SEI. What formerly was known as 12th Street and G Avenue will now be DeBolt Drive, after the brothers who founded the company.

LaBlonde said the celebration was a way to thank the community for its support.

In the top photo, a sign celebrating Superior Extrusion’s 25th anniversary is shown. In the photo below, attendees at the June 21 open house are shown. The celebration gave the public a chance to see SEI’s new expansion as well as naming a road after the company’s founder. (Journal photo by Dreyma Beronja). Pictured above is a Superior Extrusion, Inc, truck. Pictured below is groundbreaking of a $20.4 million expansion projec t in June of 2021. SEI official, joined by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other state and local leaders in the groundbreaking ceremoy, held at the company’s facility in K.I. Sawyer adjacent to Sawyer International Airport. SEI officials just celebrated the company’s 25th anniversary in as well as to the christening of a new road and the addition of a new press. From left to right: SEI Project Manager Brooke Berube, SEI Owner Myron Debolt, SEI Chairman George LaBlonde III, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and Michigan Economic Development Corporation CEO Quentin Messer, Jr. (Journal file photos)

“If it wasn’t for our employees, we wouldn’t be here,” LaBlonde said. “If it wasn’t for the contractors and all the vendors we deal with, we wouldn’t have anything to produce. So it’s a great event for everybody.”

He said SEI is hoping to have its fourth press running by next year. He also said as the economy picks back up, SEI is open to expanding the building in the future.

“We want to hire more people in the community, that’s what the shareholders originally wanted. We wanted to offer jobs to the community,” LaBlonde said. “I don’t think the original shareholders would ever expect that we’d have about 200 employees right now.”

LaBlonde said there were a lot of organizations that came together and worked together to make the new road and fourth press projects come to fruition.

In August 2021, SEI broke ground with its $20.4 million expansion project that brought 44 manufacturing jobs to Forsyth Township. The project had a $422,000 grant from the Michigan Business Development Program and a $660,000 Transportation Economic Development Fund grant from the Michigan Department of Transportation.

The project was announced in May 2021 after the Michigan Strategic Fund approved an amendment to increase the company’s Michigan Business Development Program grant award, which helped secure the additional $20.4 million in investment by SEI, according to a previous Journal article.

“The three-year process from planning to moving the road through the airport, building the building and putting the press in is a lot of time,” LaBlonde said. “It’s actually nice to get it done.”

For more information about SEI, visit online at superiorextrusion.com.