LEWISTOWN — It’s been a year and a half since a German manufacturing company announced they were making a major investment in Lewistown. Now, they’ve officially launched the first phase of their operations.
Back in December 2023, state and local leaders were on hand as VACOM unveiled plans to place its U.S. headquarters in Lewistown. There was another gathering Friday, as leaders held a ribbon-cutting on the company’s new facility.
“We’re really glad that they’re here, and we’re going to help make them successful, this community is,” said Dan Bartel, a former state senator who’s been closely involved with the effort to recruit VACOM to Fergus County.
(Watch the video for a look at VACOM's first Lewistown operations.)
VACOM is a family-held business that specializes in vacuum components, measurement technology and other products used in a variety of high-tech applications. Their first work in Lewistown will be cleaning parts – both their own and other companies’. The systems these parts go into need to be free of any dust or grime.
“The cleaning we do is not about getting rid of large amounts of contamination, but making the parts very, very, very clean,” said Michael Flaemmich, VACOM’s chief technology officer for parts cleaning, who will be taking over as general manager of the Lewistown facility in the coming weeks. “This is why we need to operate a clean room.”
VACOM installed their clean room and cleaning equipment in a former machine shop, one of two existing buildings they’ve acquired on the east side of town. They’ll handle parts that range from tiny screws to footlong pieces of metal. The first batch of parts went through the cleaning process this week.
Flaemmich says the parts they clean will go on to be used in equipment for manufacturing everything from smartphones to anti-reflective glasses to potato chip bags.
The second existing building – where the company held its celebration Friday – will eventually be used for logistics and light production work.
Flaemmich said VACOM currently has five employees working at the facility. They hope to scale up to 50 by 2027.
“We intend to hire local people, ideally from Fergus County or from Montana,” he said.
Gov. Greg Gianforte took a tour of the cleaning facility after the ribbon-cutting. He said VACOM’s investment in Montana demonstrated the value of his efforts to make the state more business-friendly.
“We need to diversify our economy to make sure our kids and grandkids can pursue high-wage jobs right here in Montana,” he said. “VACOM's doing that, and it's great to be here celebrating with them.”
VACOM CEO Jens Bergner said during a speech Friday that his company had focused on Republican-led states when planning its headquarters, because he saw them as having better business climates. However, he warned that escalating tariff battles between the U.S. government and the European Union were disturbing business.
“That is what I’m standing for, for international business and that we can grow together,” Bergner said.
Eventually, VACOM is planning a much larger campus, with manufacturing facilities of their own, near the Lewistown airport. Flaemmich said because they’re currently dealing with uncertainty in the market – including from tariffs – they don’t yet have a definite timeline for when they’ll build those facilities.
“But we have the strong plan to do so,” he said. “And it's a matter of time.”
VACOM leaders have said the Fergus County community is a big part of what drew them to locate Montana. They’ve drawn parallels between the landscape and the people in this community and in their German home, the central state of Thuringia.
“Here we feel very welcome,” said Flaemmich. “It takes hours to feel like at home.”
