That is the dominant attitude as 2024 moved into 2025.

“2024 wasn’t a great year for construction, retail establishments for professional contractors, as well as the largest of home centers like Home Depot and Lowe’s,” said Joe Carter, president, now entering his 27th year leading the iconic company synonymous with the community. “All those issues negatively impacted MARSHALLTOWN’s sales and profits, yet we had predicted and prepared for a tough year.”

In a recent email interview with the Times-Republican, Carter added:

“We are expecting to see major improvement in our business in 2025 and 2026 due to the projects we have planned with some of our customers, the growth we expect from some of our newly acquired companies, and the new products we have already developed and some new ones that are soon to come.

Carter said the company is currently constructing second story offices built at the South 8th Ave. location and expect occupancy by May of this year. “In addition, we are currently vacating our 2 oldest buildings (circa 1925) on our Iowa site so that we can knock those buildings down this spring to allow for construction of a new building that will house, among other things, a new employee entrance, breakroom, and locker rooms,” he said. “Once that work is done in late 2025, we hope that it allows for another addition to our manufacturing facility in 2026.”

The company has added new products, Carter said, including:

• DustPro 360 — Experience a safer, cleaner jobsite with the MARSHALLTOWN DustPro 360™, designed to remove dust and reduce cleanup when pouring and mixing self-leveling compound, mortar, cement, grout, and other powdery substances.

• Folding Radial Sander — The WAL-BOARD TOOLS Folding Radial Sander sets a new standard in drywall sanding with its revolutionary design and performance. As the only round sander that works with both walls and corners, one can eliminate additional tools while saving time and money on the job.

• Texture Pro 500 –With 30% more coverage, the WAL-BOARD TOOLS TEXTURE PRO® 500 gets the job done quicker and more efficiently. It is used to spray acoustics, drywall mud, waterproofing, concrete overlays, and most other gravity-fed materials. It features a patented trigger-controlled air flow technology for more consistent texture, a sealable hopper to prevent mud from drying out, and a WideTex™ orifice plate with six options.

• Lift Lender™

A critical component of management’s strategy in recent years is to grow MARSHALLTOWN.

“Consequently, In late 2022, MARSHALLTOWN acquired WAL-BOARD TOOLS, a leading manufacturer of professional drywall tools and accessories of Long Beach, Calif. WAL-BOARD was truly the first in drywall tools.” Carter said. “This acquisition helped to solidify MARSHALLTOWN as the world-leader in drywall tools. The manufacturing of these tools was absorbed into our Iowa and Fayetteville, Ark. facilities.”

Additionally, “at the end of 2023, MARSHALLTOWN acquired BARWALT® Tools, an industry-leading manufacturer of quality, professional tiling tools and accessories in Post Falls, Idaho. BARWALT® is best known for its superior tile spacers and Ultralight™ Knee Pads. Again, MARSHALLTOWN was able to absorb the manufacturing of BARWALT tools into our local facility in the 100 block of South 8th Ave. and Fayetteville facilities.”

There was more.

“Most recently in May of 2024, MARSHALLTOWN purchased all assets of VAUGHAN & BUSHNELL Manufacturing Co. (VAUGHAN), the president said. “At 156-years old, VAUGHAN is the oldest American-made hammer manufacturer,” he said. “They are well known around the world for their superior line of American-made hand tools, including all types of hammers, axes, and pry bars. Also included in the purchase was DASCO PRO, a 103-year-old company and industry leader in the manufacturing of carpentry tools like nail sets and flat bars, as well as chisels and punches. Most of those manufacturing operations have remained either in Bushnell, Ill. or Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.

Carter said he and his management team are always looking at and reviewing other acquisition candidates but does not have anything finalized in 2025 to be announced.

Carter is a Marshalltown resident and an Iowa State University graduate. He reflected on his tenure as president.

“MARSHALLTOWN was in great shape in 1998 and already well known for its concrete, brick and drywall tools,” he said. “I inherited the controls to a small business that had successfully grown and become the dominant brand in those three categories. We had facilities in Marshalltown and Fayetteville. We produced the finest tools on the planet and we were financially solid. I inherited a fantastic foundation.”

Carter succeeded former president Larry McCumber of Marshalltown, who retired.

Upon being named president, Carter said he believed they needed to do the following things:

• Grow the business even further. “Our industry is made up of a few giant players and a bunch of small, privately-held companies like us. If we were going to survive and thrive, we needed to add and develop more tools and acquire some of the other companies,” he said. “We needed to further improve our manufacturing methods and lower costs. We are in a global economy and we have many foreign, as well as domestic competitors. If we were going to succeed, we needed to be able to compete against low-cost and oftentimes lower-quality tools. We did not want to sacrifice our tool quality or service levels, so we focused on increasing our automation and perfecting our methods and processes.”

· To do all the things we wanted, we needed great people and we needed more of them! We needed all sorts of engineers – industrial, mechanical, electrical, software, robotics, etc. We needed sales and marketing people, accountants, manufacturing personnel, computer hardware and infrastructure experts, and more! That has been a challenge, but we are beating the challenge by finding the best and brightest to join our team. It has been fun.

· An additional challenge has become apparent as we have begun to outgrow our existing sites. We have virtually built everything we can build on our two sites in Fayetteville. Over the past 25 years we have bought more land around our Marshalltown facility, but we hope to build that site by the end of 2026. We are building a new warehouse and shipping facility in Kansas City, Kan. We also have some additional buildings and property in Bushnell, Ill. and Walnut Ridge, Ark. due to the latest acquisition. That leads us to the challenge of determining where we begin at the next location for more manufacturing operations. We need to do that timely enough so that we are ready to absorb another acquisition or two!

Carter was complimentary of Marshalltwon city government.

“Our local government team has been better to work with than any other I have seen,” he said. “When it comes to working with us on building issues and codes and trying to expeditiously find ways around impediments, they get the job done. I appreciate their efforts. As an example, we have a major flooding problem on 8th Avenue. The city has worked with us so that we will pay for the fixes they approved, including better and larger storm sewers. But they will pay us back over time under a TIF agreement as our new property tax payments will be the additional revenue to assist in the situation.”

The Marshalltown location is led by the following team members:

John Christen — VP of Iowa & Illinois Operations & Engineering: Wade McLeod – CFO;

Jeff Schneider – CIO; John Reynolds – Executive VP of Sales & Marketing; and Elyse Carbajal – Director of Human Resources

“It is an exciting time to be a team member at MARSHALLTOWN!” Carter said.