Nordstern Group in Winnipeg, Canada, parent company of AFS Corporate Member Sure Cast Aluminum Foundry, has purchased a building to add to its primary manufacturing campus. A $7.5-million renovation is underway that is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2025. 

The renovated facility will complement two existing operations at the Winnipeg site: Custom Castings, a permanent mold foundry, and Protek Surface Technologies, the group’s coating division. Nordstern will move its precision machining operations from Custom Castings (about 50% of Custom’s production footprint) as well as the entire coating division and the shipping department to the new building. With half of Custom Casting’s production space freed up, Nordstern is installing new equipment to double Custom’s capacity. Both of Nordstern’s metalcasting plants–– Custom Castings and Sure Cast Aluminum Foundry near Minneapolis––are aluminum foundries.

“Aluminum casting capacity in North America is generally shrinking, and at the same time, there is significant reshoring happening,” said Darren Lodge, Nordstern Group’s vice president of business development. “We see a real unmet demand occurring, and from the beginning, our mindset has always been that we’re investing in our customers’ futures. Even after our $5-million investment to upgrade Sure Cast Aluminum Foundry (see Modern Casting’s June 2022 news story, page 9) we don’t see the industry ratcheting up enough to satisfy the demand––for example, one major healthcare OEM came to us with a $1 million project because they were displaced as being too small at the incumbent foundry.” 

Nordstern’s $5-million investment in new equipment installations for Custom Castings includes an automated machining cell, heat treating equipment, Makino CNC mills, new tilt pour machines, and robotic automated sawing. All told, over the next five years, Nordstern will invest $17–$18 million to increase capacity for the demand it sees coming. 

“We’re actively seeking anchor tenants to fill that capacity,” said Lodge. “We’re here to support North American manufacturing companies accomplish their strategic goals and have a reliable supplier in relevant time zones. We are uniquely positioned geographically, with Manitoba literally in the middle of all the freight lines around North America.  We also have a cross-section of very diverse markets that we serve, from construction and agriculture equipment to utility and medical equipment.”

Currently employing 230 people across all its companies, which also includes Forte Tooling Technologies located close to the Winnipeg campus, Nordstern Group anticipates creating another 30–50 jobs over 12–36 months.