Success Story in Medical Field

Empi, a medical device manufacturing company that makes medical products for physical rehabilitation, has had a presence in South Dakota for 23 years. At the time of its inception, there were 10 employees working at the Clear Lake facility. Today, there are 181.

Marlin Bjerke, Vice President of Manufacturing, attributes that success to the quality of South Dakota’s workforce. “In Clear Lake, we have skilled engineers that were able to build us automation systems in-house,” Bjerke said.

“If you take a look at our organization, you will see that most of the employees at Clear Lake were born and raised in South Dakota. That, combined with the overall economic business climate, is favorable to manufacturing companies such as ours,” Bjerke concluded.