Iowa Lieutenant Governor Adam Gregg visited Scranton Manufacturing Thursday afternoon as part of his 99-county tour.

Vice President of Sales and Marketing for New Way Trucks and McLaughlin Family Companies Don Ross reviewed the history of the company, starting with the initial purchase in 1971 as a farm manufacturing and then switched to garbage truck manufacturing in 1984 when New Ways Trucks was acquired. New Ways trucks are fabricated and delivered across the country and the company has plans to add another 125 employees to its Mississippi location within the next year.

Ross, as well as CEO Mike McLaughlin, Jr., and Director of Operations Jim Ober outlined some struggles the company is facing. Those included employee shortage, material shortage and trying to find ways to keep existing employees. 

Gregg told Raccoon Valley Radio how shocked he was to learn how much of a footprint New Way has across the world.

“Lots of times folks don’t fully understand or appreciate that global impact. I’ll even count myself among those. I didn’t know the impact that New Way had, and what a big market share it had in this particular industry. It’s one of the very rewarding things about serving as lieutenant governor is having the opportunity to come, learn about companies like this, and then also make the connections because so many of these different companies are using other suppliers in Iowa.”

Gregg added that he and Governor Kim Reynolds have established state programs that urge people to get the necessary knowledge to be employed for skilled trade jobs like what Scranton Manufacturing offers.