SNE Enterprises may move its Stevens Point operations to the Mosinee plant.
Pat Wierzba, director of administration at SNE, said this week there hasn't been any determination made about consolidating the work of approximately 170 local workers into the Mosinee facility.
"That's the desire," Wierzba said. "There are no set plans. If we can't free up room in Mosinee, we'll continue to operate the plant."
Closing the local facility would end the local ties to a longtime Stevens Point manufacturing firm whose name still graces the outside of the plant.
Herman A. Vetter, 25, started Vetter Mfg. Co., 2116 Wood St., in 1893 after purchasing a defunct planing mill for $2,800.
The company made doors, windows, interior trim, cabinetwork and other millwork used in homes and other buildings, and also operated a retail lumber business, now the site of the former Stock Lumber Co.
Vetter remained a family-owned business until the 1980s when it was purchased by Sentry Insurance and later by SNE.
Wierzba indicated the consolidation of the Stevens Point plant is part of a continual process to improve efficiency.
Originally, SNE had five plants, four in Wausau and the one here, and consolidated them into two, Mosinee and Stevens Point, after construction of the Mosinee plant was completed in 1991, he said.
The Stevens Point plant makes specialty wood and vinyl windows but utilizes materials from the Mosinee plant and then returns many products to Mosinee to be combined with products finished there.
Wierzba said a decision in December to move vinyl window production from Mosinee to Huntington, W.Va., was made to free up space but increased production at Mosinee hasn't made that space available.
As a result, he said the Stevens Point plant will continue to operate until the move can be made.
As for the future of the Stevens Point property, Wierzba said SNE hasn't decided what to do. There are no plans to sell, he said, and the building can be used as a warehouse.