Fall Barn Tour includes the Round Barn in Le Mars
The Iowa Barn Foundation’s 26th Annual All-State Barn Tour will once again include the historic round barn located on the Plymouth County Fairgrounds in Le Mars. This year’s tour will be held on September 19th and 20th, featuring over 100 barns across the state, including 16 round barns.
Pat Lehner says the Le Mars landmark is the focal point of the Plymouth County Fairgrounds.
Pat says that although it is a self-guided tour, she and her husband Dave greet many of the visitors during the two-day event.
The Lehner’s handle the rentals of the buildings on the fairgrounds and Dave is the groundskeeper. Pat praised the Iowa Barn Foundation, a volunteer-led non-profit organization.
Go to iowabarnfoundation.org/barn-tours for more information.
Wells Dunkirk N.Y. Facility Celebrates Growth
Wells Enterprises celebrated a major milestone in its Dunkirk New York facility transformation with a ribbon cutting for its new, best-in-class employee center and production expansion. The event highlighted the company’s continued investment in its people, products and the local community bringing together New York State leadership, County and Community leaders, company leaders and employees to recognize the achievement.
The milestone marked the completion of the first two phases of the $425 million facility’s state-of-the-art transformation. Headlining the event was the company’s investment in employee experiences, highlighting the highly anticipated employee amenities in a brand-new, three-story center. The new building, replacing an over 75-year-old structure, now includes updated breakrooms, cafeteria space, training rooms, offices and additional resources designed to support the team members who power Wells’ operations.
In addition to the new employee center, the event also celebrated the start-up of new production lines and capabilities that began late last year, including a first-of-a-kind Segregated Compound Facility. Combining Wells’ ice cream manufacturing heritage with Ferrero’s global confectionary leadership, the one-of-a-kind chocolate manufacturing facility is the only Ferrero facility of its kind in the U.S. and creates new capabilities for long-term category growth and future innovation. The plant also uses new proprietary technology and highly customized capabilities to meet rigorous standards and keep quality at the forefront of every cone, cup, pint and more.
Brad Galles, Chief Manufacturing and Engineering Officer at Wells Enterprises stated “We are grateful for the continued support of the State of New York, Empire State Development, Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency and the City of Dunkirk as we build on our strong foundation in the region. We look forward to continuing this journey in building this state-of-the-art operation that is vital to our manufacturing network on the East Coast.”
Wells Enterprises purchased the Dunkirk facility in 2019 and broke ground in 2024 on the multi-year, multi-phase transformation. This milestone marks the completion of Phases 1 and 2, including new infrastructure to support initial production lines, freezer capacity, the chocolate facility and the new employee center. Phase 3, which is currently underway, will add more production lines, while Phase 4 will expand processing capabilities, including raw materials. The full transformation is expected to be completed in 2028 and is expected to add 270 permanent jobs over the course of the next several years, while retaining existing roles. Once finished, the 350,000-square-foot facility will be capable of operating 11 to 15 production lines and producing an estimated 20 million cases annually, up from 4 million cases previously
