Advance Tank, Wellington make good neighbors

By Gary Raham
Wellington Correspondent

Storage tanks might be taken for granted, unless someone has lots of beer, grain, gasoline, water or other products to store before use or shipment to clients. Fortunately, Wellington serves as home to a company that can build and install tanks for nearly every need: Advance Tank Construction Co.

Advance Tank specializes in building and installing welded stainless and carbon steel tanks, bins, hoppers, silos and smokestacks. It recently constructed big silos for the Budweiser plant expansion, along with stainless steel tanks in Sterling, a 2-million-gallon storage tank in Firestone and soda ash silos and tanks in Parachute. The company also built two water tanks for Wellington, but work within the town is rare, because of the nature of what Advance Tank builds.

"It has been fun watching the town grow, though," said James Clay, company president.

Clay is in his 21st year with Advance Tank, a family-owned company started by Spence Van Alsburg in Illinois. The Van Alsburgs moved to Wellington in 1981, and the company has been at County Road 64 just west of the railroad tracks since 1984.

Advance Tank employs about 180 people nationwide. Sales and operations are based in Illinois. Pell City, Ala., hosts another plant. Forty to 50 people work at the Colorado site, with 10 or 12 of those coming from Wellington. They are office workers, engineers, drafting specialists and management personnel, along with welders and general laborers.

"We like to hire people with good general knowledge and train them for our needs," said Clay. "We have phenomenal, phenomenal employees."

Many people move up through company ranks as they learn. "I would promote 100 percent internally if it were possible," Clay said. "I like to see who's got the drive and ability to learn."

Field workers spend a lot of time on the road. Advance Tank places ads in trade journals and hires people from all over the country. Shop staff is more often hired locally. Advance Tank is actively looking for welders and fitters at the moment.

Building tanks for ethanol storage has increased dramatically in the last three to four years, Clay said, although the company has done that sort of work for 20 to 25 years. "The bio-fuel market is a large one for us," Clay said, adding that the company takes pride in all projects. "We do the best job we can with all that we do."

Advance Tank handles all the construction on the tanks it installs, showing up with a complete construction team. The web site www.advancetank.com outlines project specification, engineering, procurement, fabrication, installation, and project management services. When asked what drew the Van Alsburgs to Wellington, Clay said they looked at Fort Collins first, but it was hard to find a spot friendly to light industry. Wellington had space available not too close to housing and offered economic incentives.

"Wellington's a great town to be part of," Clay added. "We're a family-owned business, and although we keep a low profile, we like to think we've been a pretty good neighbor."

Editor's note: This is the second in a series of articles about light manufacturing employers in the Wellington area, where community leaders are hoping to attract more jobs for local residents.