Here we can follow a piece from start to finish. And when people come in, we have time to show them what we do and that we're real proud of it. They take pride that so many of their materials come from Wisconsin. Clearly, this is no ordinary factory. The three weeks before Christmas are the busiest of the year.
Production is up by a third or a half.
The work force has mushroomed to seven. Yet there is no frantic activity. When the old Janesville Carriage Co. building was sold and razed in 1985, its spiritual successor relocated across the railroad tracks in a two-story building of motley brick that has served, in turn, as a railroad depot, a warehouse and a feed mill. A modest, poster-sized sign on the door is the only hint that 507 Laurel Ave. is the home of Wisconsin Wagon. In the company's main workroom, a bulletin board bristles with hundreds of color snapshots of Wisconsin-made coasters, swings, sleds and wheelbarrows filled with smiling children and their stuffed toys.