Metso recently broke ground for its new, 44,000-ft² service facility in Mesa, Arizona. Ideally positioned and equipped to service customers throughout the southwest U.S. and northern Mexico, the Mesa location is a perfect fit for Metso. Mesa Mayor Alex Finter welcomed Metso. “Southeast Mesa is quickly becoming the place for companies to call home thanks to the convenience of the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway airport, highways and technology hubs,” Finter said. “This first-class infrastructure will no doubt allow Metso to strengthen their global strategy of bringing services closer to customers and developing solutions more efficiently.”
Design and construction of the Mesa facility has been contracted to LGE Design Build, a leading general contractor in the Phoenix area for the last 20 years. Notable design features of the building include a large service area that will house two 60-ton bridge cranes, as well as welding and machining bays. The bridge cranes will enable Metso to service and repair very large-scale mining equipment, including grinding mills, crushers and screens—all key components to mining operations in the region.
The building will also provide ample office and workspace for approximately 65 current office and field Metso Services team members who will be based there, and including some 40 new positions. These positions (some existing and some new) will cover a variety of skill sets—from machining, welding and fabrication to field service and administrative personnel.
Randall Reisinger, senior vice president for Metso’s Service Operational Hubs for Mining and Construction, explained that this is a big next step for Metso’s strong existing presence in Mesa. “Our service team has been established here since the mid-1990s,” Reisinger said, “which makes this location ideal for our employees and their families who already call it home. It’s a move that allows us to expand our physical capacity and our capabilities, while remaining in an area that’s served us and our customers so well for so many years.”
Construction of the service facility, located on a 10-acre site on Pecos Road in Mesa, will begin immediately and is expected to be complete during the first quarter of 2015. In the meantime, (beginning in February 2014), Metso is leasing a fully equipped facility nearby, giving them a “jump start” on the expanded service offering they plan to deliver starting in 2015. Metso has already transferred existing employees to this leased facility, and there are plans to fill several new positions in the coming months.
