VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Local entrepreneurs Keith Hovland and Jerry Piper, founders of the service company Product Acquisition and Integration Services, LLC, (PAIS), recently purchased the assets and intellectual property of the Huber Manufacturing Company and are in the early stages of resuming production of the Huber 850-E Maintainer in Valley City. The operation will be doing business as “Huber Maintainer” and will be located at 1029 Four Bottle Drive occupying the west half of what was the Vansco Building.
The original “Huber Manufacturing Company” was founded in 1863 by Edward Huber and Lewis Gunn in Marion, Ohio to manufacture farm implements then quickly moved into the growing steam tractor manufacturing industry. While many steam tractor manufacturers focused on agriculture applications the Huber Company directed their innovation efforts toward the growing road construction industry developing the first gasoline and diesel engine traction machines including rollers, packers, and eventually road graders.
Huber machines have been marketed worldwide over the years, with ownership of the brand changing hands several times. In 1955 Huber merged with the W.A. Riddell Company and became known as the more familiar Huber-Warco brand with a broad array of products including a full range of motor graders, maintainers, packers of all types, seal coating machines, and even hydraulic rough terrain cranes. Visit the Huber museum web site at www.hubermuseum.com to learn more Huber history.
Huber today will focus on the Maintainer product for distribution in North America. The new Model E Maintainer will feature a complete drive train overhaul including state of the art Cummins engine power, all new hydrostatic drive and axle components, and many changes to assure continued reliability and precision blade control.
The Huber 850-E Maintainer will be marketed through a small group of equipment dealers who are uniquely qualified to distribute asphalt related equipment to road construction companies, counties, townships, and cities.
Keith and Jerry invite you to visit the Huber website at www.hubermaintainer.com and the PAIS website at www.paisservices.com to learn more about their manufacturing initiatives and would like to thank the Valley City Barnes County Development Corporation, Dacotah Bank, and many others for their local support and encouragement in this project.
“The Valley City Barns County Development Corporation is excited to extend our support to PAIS and Huber Maintainer and wish them success in their new venture” said JoAnn Hooper, President of the Development Corporation. “It’s good to help local entrepreneurs.”
PAIS and Huber Maintainer is located in the Northwest Industrial Park near Valley City. They occupy the west 9,000 sq.ft. of the building owned by the Development Corporation (previously occupied by Vansco). Jennifer Feist said, “Our role was to provide leasehold improvements to the building and lease the property at a substantially discounted rate so they could focus on their business. She added, John Stearns, Java Chew, is located in the east half of the building.”
