Northwest Wisconsin Business Development Corp. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture loan fund and Northwest Regional Planning Commission SBA Micro Loan program awarded funding to help Wegner Cabinetry purchase needed equipment for an expansion/retention project.
David Wegner has been involved in construction and wood working all of his adult life. Working first for his father, a carpenter in Grays Lake, Illinois and then moving to the Siren area with his father where they sold and repaired mobile homes. He opened his own cabinet shop in 1984. Wegner has expanded the business twice since then, once in 1995 and again in 2001 after his shop was destroyed by the Siren tornado.
Wegner is the primary custom cabinetmaker for eleven different local construction contractors in the Siren area and has also manufactured custom store fixtures for area businesses. Additionally, Wegner builds customized caskets for a local mortician. When the need for a new vendor arose and a great bulk buy of inventory happened as a result, Wegner’s first call was to NWRPC.
“[NWRPC and NWBDC] staff has always treated me well and given me ample opportunities to restart my business [with a HUD Emergency Management loan] when the tornado struck in 2001 and to expand my operation as my business grew,” Wegner said.
Other loans made assisted Wegner with equipment expansion and operational capital.
Altogether, Wegner Cabinetry has a satisfactory payback history of 13 years with NWRPC and NWBDC. NWBDC’s USDA revolving loan funding and the NWRPC’s SBA Micro Loan Fund helped Wegner Cabinetry build into what it is today all while retaining 6 full time jobs in Siren, Wisconsin. To see if your business would qualify for a startup, transition or expansion loan product at NWRPC, contact loan fund manager Ken Pearson at (715) 635-2197.