Danuser forges ahead

A Danuser Machine Company employee works inside the company's new addition Friday. The latest facility has given the company 32,000 more square feet, increasing its total square footage to more than 100,000. Demand of its attachments caused the company to build a bigger space.
A Danuser Machine Company employee works inside the company's new addition Friday. The latest facility has given the company 32,000 more square feet, increasing its total square footage to more than 100,000. Demand of its attachments caused the company to build a bigger space.

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Fayetteville junior point guard Calli Berna, right, drives past junior guard Clair Childers during practice Thursday in Fayetteville.

Fulton-based Danuser Machine Company Inc. gave the public an insight to the company's past, present and future on Friday with an open house of its 2014 expansion and demonstration of its latest attachment products.

"It's a new day at Danuser," Glenn Danuser, a company vice president (along with this sister Janea Danuser), said Friday after showing how the company's Hammer post driver, T3 post driver and multi-purpose grapple work.

The fourth generation leader of the 104-year-old company established by T.B. Danuser said its building addition was the result of the company's success with the Hammer post driver.

The product was recently featured on the show, "How It's Made." The episode was played for the public Friday.

Danuser said the Hammer (along with other attachments like augers), steady operation of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) products and building expansion showed how the company is growing.

Its Hammer, Danuser said, gave the company reason to expand into its 32,000-square foot facility (increasing the total warehouse square footage more than 100,000), and helped fund the new space. First established in 1910 inside a dirt floor building, Danuser's 2014 addition is its seventh installation.

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The Hammer, a one-person post driver, is utilized by farmers, contractors, homeowners and anyone wanting to install sign and fence posts, median dividers, guard rails and more.

It's been on the market for three years and its popularity continues to grow as it is one of a kind, Glenn Danuser said.

He called the Hammer the company's "shining star."

"The Hammer has breathed new life into a 104-year-old company," Danuser said.

Dealers primarily knew Danuser as an auger company, Glenn Danuser said, but because of the Hammer's success, dealers are looking at the company in a different way.

"With the Hammer, dealers got excited to see something new and innovative ... Now, all the dealers are calling us (asking), "What's new?'" Glenn Danuser said.

That question is likely to be answered in upcoming years.

The company is currently in phase one of a three-phase plan. Phase two, Danuser said, will bring another expansion in the next 2-4 years, and expansion correlates with product production at Danuser.

Roland Bartley, Danuser's sales manager, said the company has hopes to unveil a new product every year for the next 3-4 years.

And new products could mean new jobs.

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AP

Nidal Malik Hasan

Janea Danuser, vice president, said there are currently 74 full-time employees and two part-time employees at Danuser. Those numbers are expected to increase.

With its attachment line, Danuser is taking advantage of the demand of skid loaders, which Glenn Danuser said are dominating the industry. Once primarily used in construction, farmers have been using skid loaders more and more.

Skid loaders featuring four Danuser attachments - the Hammer post driver, T3 post driver, EP Auger (launched in 2008) and multi-purpose grapple - were used for production demonstration Friday at Danuser's site off of State Street.

The function of the T3 post driver is in the name as it drives T-posts, tent stakes, sign posts, etc. with up to a three-inch diameter. It's Danuser's newest attachment, that launched two weeks ago. Before it was shipped, Glenn Danuser said, more than 300 T3 post drivers were sold.

On a tour of the entire Danuser building, Bartley also spoke about how anxious customers are to purchase the T3 post driver.

"We started selling them last month and we can't keep up," Bartley said.

Danuser will initiate sales of its multi-purpose grapple in a couple months, Glenn Danuser said.

The multi-purpose grapple is essentially a fork lift with an upper mouth piece that allows the equipment to move boulders, logs and other large items. The mouth piece can be unpinned, tucked up and stored so the grapple can also be used solely as a fork lift.

Whether they're developing new products, expanding the building or maintaining quality of OEMs, Danuser employees keep K.B. Danuser's motto at the forefront: "Good enough won't do - it must be right."