2025 Business of the Year

Over the past few years, Loos Machine & Automation in Colby has greatly expanded its footprint while maintaining a commitment to the quality work that has kept it in business for well over a century.

Now operating under its fourth set of owners, the manufacturing company has been named the 2025 Business of the Year by the Abby-Colby Crossings Chamber of Commerce, and will be honored at the chamber’s banquet this Thursday, March 19, at Jack’s Cantina Bar & Grill in Abbotsford.

Started in 1902 by E.D. Loos as a simple repair shop, the company has grown over the past 124 years into the longest-lasting anchor of the city’s business community, evolving several times into what it is today. The original business stayed within the Loos family all the way until 1981, when Dennis Baumgartner and Kurt Mertens purchased the operation from the Loos brothers, Sherman, Clinton and Vernon, who had been running it since 1931. Since 2021, when Dennis and Kurt decided to retire, Loos has been owned and operated by Kurt’s son, Eric Mertens, and fellow employee Brady Hoes. Eric Mertens said the Loos family started by repairing farm machinery in the burgeoning farm community, and in the early 1930s, the brothers expanded it into a foundry shop.

“So, they actually got into making boilers and outboard motors back in those days,” he said. “From there, it kind of transitioned back into farm machinery and repair.”

After his father and Baumgartner took over in 1981, Eric Mertens said they expanded into the cheese and dairy food industry. Mertens said both men were working in Milwaukee before coming to Colby to purchase the business from the Loos family.

For most of its existence, Loos Machine had been a small operation with just a handful of employees, but starting in the 2000s, Eric Mertens said it started to grow rapidly, with an average annual growth rate of 30 percent over the past decade.

“Really the bulk of our growth has taken place over the last 10 years,” he said. “It certainly grew under Kurt and Dennis’s ownership, especially in the last handful of years.”

At this point, Loos Machine & Automation employs about 170 people in three different locations, including the recently expanded production facility along Highway 13, the engineering office in the city’s downtown (formerly Nicolet Bank) and a recently acquired business near Rice Lake. The staff includes roughly 50 engineers in mechanical, automation and project leadership, about 25 people in sales and management and the rest in production.

For Mertens, who grew up in the family business and graduated from Colby High School, the decision to take over Loos Machine & Automation was a relatively easy one after he earned his engineering degree at UW-Stout in Menomonie.

“Once I graduated college, I considered going to another company or business, but right at that time, Kurt and Dennis were in need of an engineer and it made sense for me to come back,” he said.

A major opportunity to expand its production facility presented itself in 2022 when Loos purchased and demolished the vacated Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) building. Mertens said it’s “more or less a new building,” with just a small portion of the old PCA factory being refurbished. In total, he said the company now has about 140,000 square feet of facilities across its Colby and Rice Lake locations.

Looking ahead, he said Loos Machine & Automation has plans to continue expanding to the south along the highway.

Mertens said the company’s decision to purchase additional facilities was driven by the growth in demand for its products, especially in the dairy industry, but also in other sectors such as fruit and vegetables, meat and poultry, pizza and bread and beverages. He said their niche is constructing automated food processing systems, with customers across North America, but also around the world in places like Brazil, Argentina, Israel and Australia.

“So we do ship globally as well, but a bulk of our business is here domestically, here in the United States, and in Canada,” he said.

When asked what has kept Loos Machine & Automation in Colby for over 120 years, Mertens says the quality of the local workforce is the deciding factor. He said the owners have been able to build their business around “the hard-working people of this community.”

A fair number of Loos employees come from backgrounds in dairy farming, he said, with a workforce that stretches out across a 30-mile radius, from Ogema down to Marshfield and Wausau to Chippewa Falls. The company invests in the workforce by helping educate students starting in middle school and working all the way up through the technical school system.

As appreciation for the Colby area, Loos regularly contributes to local causes, whether its the school system, community events or charitable ventures.

“We try to get involved wherever we possibly can,” he said. “It’s important that we give back to the community like the community has given to us.”

The nomination form submitted for Loos Machine & Automation to be the Business of the Year points to the company’s long history of leaders who have served on local boards, coached sports and “step forward whenever there is a need, demonstrating a genuine commitment to giving back.”

“Loos has been a true north star in our community when it comes to community service,” the nomination states. “By consistently making a positive impact and leading by example, it not only supports the community at large but also challenges and inspires other businesses to increase their involvement and give back.”

Mertens said it has taken a lot of hard work and dedication over the decades to keep Loos Machine & Automation surviving and thriving, from the Great Depression of the 1930s to the technological changes of the 21st century. The company has also earned a lot of loyal customers over time, he said.

Loos Machine’s business model is based on four basic principles: passion, teamwork, integrity and innovation.

“I feel like those values were strong back in 1902, as they were through the 1930s and in 1981 when Kurt and Dennis took over the business,” he said. “I think they still are very prominent, and it’s something we can continue to build upon.”