People were very supportive, very excited about it.”

Mike Corcoran, vice president of operations

Intek celebrated the completion of a major office remodel in Hastings with a ribbon cutting, marking a fresh chapter for a company that has been part of the community for more than 50 years.
The project updated about 10,000 square feet of office space, along with another 1,500 square feet in an engineering area. The work touched a large share of the Hastings workforce, with about 130 office employees affected by the remodel. Intek has about 210 employees at the Hastings site, or 212, depending on who is doing the quick count.
Mike Corcoran, vice president of operations, said the purpose of the project was simple. The company wanted a workplace that better represented Intek to employees, future employees and customers.
“We're celebrating the remodel of our office space,” Corcoran said.
The remodel was also a practical response to growth. Sonya Prange, chief human resource officer, said the company had outgrown the old setup. The last major remodel was about 30 to 40 years ago, and since then, the company has roughly doubled in size.
With that growth came familiar workplace headaches. Meeting rooms were limited, common areas were no longer working as well as they should, and basic spaces such as the break room and bathrooms needed attention.
Corcoran said the office had become dated, and the company made the decision to invest in the building. He credited ownership and the board of directors for supporting the project.
“We were always trying to present well to both our employees, prospective employees, and customers,” Corcoran said.
The remodel was close to a full interior rebuild. Intek worked with a design firm on the layout, colors and overall look, then hired a general contractor to handle the construction. Once the work started, the project took about four months.
That meant the company had to keep operating while much of its office space was out of commission. Corcoran said Intek spent a long time planning for the disruption, including a work-from-home period that began around Oct. 1 and ran through the company’s shutdown around Christmas.
Production continued during the project. The production floor stayed open, and employees who needed to be on site were moved into temporary spaces in the factory. Others worked rotating schedules, while employees who could reasonably work from home did so.
Prange said the company made extra space where it could for those who needed to support production staff in person.
The disruption was not exactly business as usual, but Corcoran said employees understood the reason behind it and were supportive of the effort.
“People were very supportive, very excited about it,” Corcoran said. “They loved the fact that our ownership was willing to invest in the facility and in them.”
He said the finished space is brighter and more open, and that makes a difference the moment people walk in.
The remodel also reflects Intek’s place as a long-running Hastings employer. The company makes custom plastic extrusions, which Corcoran described as long plastic parts made through an extrusion process. Its products are shipped mostly throughout North America, with some international reach as well.
While the company does not put a flashy consumer label on most of its work, its parts may be more familiar than people realize. Corcoran said that, without naming customer companies, it is likely that someone looking at the windows in their home could find an Intek-made part.
In addition to Hastings, Intek has an extrusion plant in Medford, Wisconsin, an injection molding plant in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and a warehouse with 3D printing work in Cottage Grove. The Cottage Grove location is new as well.
Prange said the remodeled Hastings office is part of a larger effort to strengthen both the company brand and employer brand.
“We really want to make sure that we're putting our best foot forward for customers and our employees,” Prange said.
For Corcoran, the project comes back to investment, both in the workplace and in the community. He said the remodeled office helps make Intek a better environment for employees and, ideally, a place that draws more people to work there.
After four months of planning around construction, temporary desks, work-from-home schedules and a little workplace patience, the Hastings office is now open, updated and ready for its next long run.