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October 19, 2026
NEENAH – Iowa-based VT Industries is investing in its Neenah architectural wood door manufacturing site, with a major expansion that will add 52,000 square feet of finished goods storage and manufacturing space.
VT officials said the Neenah expansion comes on the heels of VT Industries’ 70th anniversary celebrations, underscoring the company’s long-term commitment to the site and its role in the company’s growth strategy.
Aaron Clausen, co-president and third-generation owner, said the project is expected to strengthen VT’s manufacturing footprint and support increased demand for its products.
“VT is committed to continuing our investment in the Neenah facility, and this project represents an important step in that journey,” Clausen said. “The additional finished goods space will improve production flow and operational efficiency while creating opportunities to expand manufacturing capabilities and support future growth.”
With groundbreaking set for mid-October on the south side of the current property near John Street, JP Hammerton, general manager of VT’s Architectural Wood Door Division, said construction is expected to take less than a year, with the expansion being fully operational by summer 2027.
“This expansion is really primarily for a finished goods warehouse,” he said. “The doors that are completed, wrapped up and ready to go to the customer will sit there, as well as some packaging equipment, etc. That will be the primary use for this new space.”
Hammerton said moving the warehouse to this new space will allow VT to expand, reorganize and eventually bring in new equipment and staffing to increase production further.
“VT Industries, based out of Holstein, Iowa, has two major divisions,” he said. “The first division is countertops, just like what you might think of – laminate countertops sold to [hardware and home improvement retailers], residential, etc.”
Hammerton said the Neenah facility does not handle any production or sales from that division.
He said the other division within VT – which the Neenah facility specializes in – is the Architectural Wood Doors Division.
“That does not include residential or metal doors,” Hammerton said. “If you think about hospitals, offices, hotels, school buildings, high-rise apartments, etc., we manufacture all of those types of doors. That’s the only thing we do in the Neenah plant.”
A history of making countertops, doors
According to VT Industries’ website (vtindustries.com), the company is North America’s leading manufacturer of commercial architectural wood doors, countertops and surfaces, operating 15 facilities across the U.S. and Canada.
The company is also recognized on the FDMC 300 list of top wood products manufacturers in North America.
“Currently, VT has five door manufacturing facilities that do more or less the same thing – supply doors to the commercial building industry,” Hammerton said. “The balance of those locations are for the countertops industry.”
First beginning operations in 1956, per the website, VT – then known as Van Top, Inc. – was founded by Roger Clausen in Holstein.
In 1963, architectural door production began, and a year later, VT relocated to a 45,000-square-foot plant north of Holstein.
Beginning in 1977, VT began adding manufacturing facilities across the country, and by 2016, the company had produced 10 million doors.
David Streu, automation and engineering manager at VT, said the Neenah plant has a long history in the area.
“Eggers Industries was founded in 1884 in Two Rivers,” he said. “In the 1960s, Eggers acquired the Neenah facility, which was operated under Hardwood Products. At the time, VT and Eggers were two of the top three commercial door producers in the country.”
Fast forward to 2018, Streu said VT acquired Eggers, which led to the first Neenah expansion project in 2020.
“Eggers did essentially the exact same type of work when VT acquired them, so our business didn’t really change here locally with that acquisition,” he said. “The first expansion added 45,000 square feet to accommodate the core assembly machine.”
Before the 2020 expansion, Hammerton said the Neenah facility encompassed about 200,000 square feet of space.
With the expansion six years ago and the current project underway, he said the total square footage of the Neenah plant will top out at about 300,000 square feet.
“Though maybe not an immediate need, hiring more staff is definitely on the horizon,” Hammerton said. “It’s something we’re certainly keeping an eye on as we staff up and ramp up our production.”
