Chambersburg boiler maker to add 10 jobs, product line
By MARCUS RAUHUT
Staff writer
Public Opinion
CHAMBERSBURG – A Chambersburg boiler manufacturer expects to add at least 10 jobs with the launch of a trailer line.
Alternate Heating Systems, which makes wood and coal boilers, recently started manufacturing trailers under the name BWISE Trailers.
“Since the boiler business is very seasonal, we wanted to build a product that has a strong spring sales market. With our strong background in manufacturing trailers, we felt this would be a great fit,” owner Brian Wise said.
Wise has more than two decades of experience in the trailer industry. He is the co-founder and former president of Bri-Mar Manufacturing in Chambersburg, and before that, he was at EZ-Dumper in Waynesboro.
Wise started another trailer company, Hitch Things, about 10 years ago, but later sold it. The business was struggling, and Wise agreed to buy it back about a year and a half ago.
He bought Alternate Heating Systems in 2009 and grew the company, which now employs 45 people at its facility on Wayne Avenue.
The addition of trailer manufacturing will add at least 10 to 15 new jobs.
“That’s probably a conservative estimate,” Wise said. “Not only do we anticipate growth there, but also in the boilers this fall if oil prices stay where they are.”
BWISE Trailers will focus is on building a line of trailers for residential and commercial customers, including utility, landscape, car hauler, equipment and dump trailers. Later this year, the company plans to add livestock and enclosed trailers to the product line.
The company will build and sell directly to the customer.
“This enables us to add some extra features and still keep the price very competitive, since we are eliminating the middle man,” Wise said. ” Since we manufacture almost everything ourselves in our 80,000-square-foot facility, including cylinders and hoists as well as all steel components, we are able to respond more quickly and have better control over production costs.”