I got to visit their incredible facility in Barneveld, Wisconsin for the first time yesterday and today.
Dan Hamilton was looking for 10 to 15 acres in the village’ of Barneveld business park here to build a $14 million headquarters and manufacturing complex for his line of rifle and spotting scopes, binoculars and range finders.
That was in 2013.
Today, Hamilton and his Vortex Optics owns virtually all of the 150 acres in the business park where $35 million in improvements include a 280,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing facility, two indoor shooting ranges, a showroom that displays the company’s latest products, and a 12,000-square-foot stand-alone daycare and preschool center for his employees that is also open to the public.
Vortex is now building another 100,000 sq ft product warehouse. This all started as a Wild Birds Unlimited franchise in Dan's garage. He was prompted by birding customers to create a line of binoculars and used suggestions as to what they wanted in his design. That tiny part time business has now grown to over 300 employees.
We got to tour the facility, shoot in the indoor ranges (100 yard, 50 yard, and 25 yard). Watched a scope mounting demonstration. Participate in shoot/no shoot drills as backup to police officers in incredible video virtual scenarios. This was an adrenaline dump exercise that was very real, very exciting, and sometimes very scary. All of this was in their new 55,000 sq ft. Vortex Edge Shootin and Training Center. This facility also houses a movable wall "shoot house" for LEO training. This shoot house has real furniture, with controllable, lighting, sound effects, and real bad guys. The shoot no shoot drills are done with paint ball guns. The whole area can be monitored from catwalks above.
The people there are so awesome. It is a family atmosphere. It is easy to see why they love their jobs.
Here are some pictures.
Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
Dan Hamilton was looking for 10 to 15 acres in the village’ of Barneveld business park here to build a $14 million headquarters and manufacturing complex for his line of rifle and spotting scopes, binoculars and range finders.
That was in 2013.
Today, Hamilton and his Vortex Optics owns virtually all of the 150 acres in the business park where $35 million in improvements include a 280,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing facility, two indoor shooting ranges, a showroom that displays the company’s latest products, and a 12,000-square-foot stand-alone daycare and preschool center for his employees that is also open to the public.
Vortex is now building another 100,000 sq ft product warehouse. This all started as a Wild Birds Unlimited franchise in Dan's garage. He was prompted by birding customers to create a line of binoculars and used suggestions as to what they wanted in his design. That tiny part time business has now grown to over 300 employees.
We got to tour the facility, shoot in the indoor ranges (100 yard, 50 yard, and 25 yard). Watched a scope mounting demonstration. Participate in shoot/no shoot drills as backup to police officers in incredible video virtual scenarios. This was an adrenaline dump exercise that was very real, very exciting, and sometimes very scary. All of this was in their new 55,000 sq ft. Vortex Edge Shootin and Training Center. This facility also houses a movable wall "shoot house" for LEO training. This shoot house has real furniture, with controllable, lighting, sound effects, and real bad guys. The shoot no shoot drills are done with paint ball guns. The whole area can be monitored from catwalks above.
The people there are so awesome. It is a family atmosphere. It is easy to see why they love their jobs.
Here are some pictures.
Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
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