Vacom’s New U.S. HQ Is Another Win In Montana’s Manufacturing Blitz

“Going to Montana was like going home to Thuringia,” said Jens Bergner, CEO of Vacom, referring to the company’s home base in the city of Größlobichau in the east-central German state. Earlier this month, Vacom announced it will locate its new American headquarters and factory facility in Lewistown, Montana, with an eventual total investment of $90 million to create about 500 new jobs. It’s the latest of a series of accomplishments for a consortium of the state’s government, academic and business leaders that has prioritized efforts to draw manufacturers to Montana.

Founded by Bergner’s mother in 1992, Vacom fabricates and services highly specialized components and measurement technology for industrial clean room vacuum systems, serving such industries as chipmaking, aerospace, and research and development. In addition to its main headquarters and production and service facilities in Germany, the company has sales offices near Antwerp, Belgium, and in Naples, Florida and Reno, Nevada.

The new facility is riding the wave of reshoring of high-tech production to the U.S., according to Bergner. “The CHIPS Act is bringing chip production back to the U.S. and Europe,” he said. “Supply chains in the U.S. don’t currently have the knowledge of clean room technologies. We’re here to support them ramping up.”

Montana’s legislature and Governor Greg Gianforte has spent the past several years focused on measure to attract just that kind of business. “Since I came to office, we’ve aggressively pursued red tape reduction,” Gianforte said. “We have the 4^th lowest capital gains tax rate in the country, and no tax on the sale of corporate stock.” In his first term, the governor signed a measure increasing the business equipment tax exemption from $100,000 to $300,000. Earlier this year, he signed another bill that further increased it to $1 million while also providing businesses with liability reforms and protections against environmental litigation costs. He also proposed and enacted the largest income tax cut in the state’s history. “We’re trying to get the golden entrepreneurial goose to lay golden W2 eggs,” joked Gianforte.

In its search for its expansion location, Vacom began by considering 22 states before whittling the list down to five finalists. In the end it came down to as much about the people as it did the business environment. “One of our biggest issues is finding good, educated people,” Bergner explained. “The governor was very persuasive–he said Montana has great universities and needs more high-tech jobs. We were getting CVs right away–people are very, very willing to move to Lewistown.”

“It’s as much our culture as what goes on in the classroom,” Gianforte added. “Our ranchers are a good example. If the tractor is broken, they don’t form a committee or hire a consultant. They fix the tractor.”

While Lewistown is just a small place with about 7,000 people smack in the middle of the state, it had another big plus going for it. “It was important for me to be very close to the Lewistown airport,” said Bergner. “We’ll fly in equipment, clean and service it, and send it right back out. That reduces downtime on very expensive machines for our customers.”

Vacom is planning several phases of expansion over the next several years. “We bought an existing property and we’re spending $6 million to get a clean room up and running by the end of next year,” Bergner said. “Next is the Vacom Big Sky project, which will take another 15 months for planning the facility. We’ll break ground in summer 2025 on a $35 million investment that will bring about 200 direct jobs. That will start up in 2027. Finally, after that we’ll increase production by investing another $50 million that will bring the jobs total to about 500. We’re planning a 40,000 square foot clean room and production space, along with a training center where we’ll train specialists, a canteen, and a day care and kindergarten.”

Gianforte, meanwhile, is focused on continuing to court new businesses. “We have about 150 companies in our recruitment pipeline,” he said. “We have a Red Carpet Program for them. In my first term, I expanded trades education with the Montana Trades Education Credit. This year, we doubled the funding for M-TEC. And others are saying Montana is ahead of the rest of the country on workforce housing–there was a great article about that in The Atlantic. If you want more houses, it’s essentially a supply-side problem. I asked for a $200 million revolving fund to provide loans for new water and sewer installations. We changed zoning ordinances and outlawed exclusionary zoning, so now you can put up duplexes and build accessory dwelling units on existing properties. We’re continuing to make the environment favorable for businesses. If I had to summarize it, Montana is open for business.”

For Bergner, it’s more fundamental. “We’re a family business, and in Germany we’re a Mittelstandt [one of the many stable, mid-sized family-owned firms that are considered the backbone of the German economy]. For us, it’s not just about producing. It’s about working together, educating, and making a better life. In Montana there’s enough space for growing. Lewistown is a wonderful place to raise a family.”