First Team prepares to expand

By ROD ZOOK

Hutch Post

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A local sporting equipment manufacturer is about to expand its footprint. First Team Sports, Inc., is preparing to expand its facilities by 27,000 square feet. First Team has been in Hutchinson since 1996, but Vice President Jeff Roth admits that many don’t know about the company located just west of the airport on Corey Road.

Parts wait in a holding area until they are ready for assembly. Subcontractors manufacture components that are assembled, packaged and then shipped.

“First Team is a manufacturer of indoor and outdoor sports equipment,” Roth said. “We focus primarily on basketball, volleyball, soccer and football equipment.”

The company also provides indoor and outdoor tennis and pickleball equipment, and safety padding for indoor and outdoor sports. The company uses outside contracts to manufacture subassembly parts that are then assembled and packaged in Hutchinson for shipping. After an expansion about six years ago, Roth says they need more space once again.

Finished products are loaded onto trucks for shipping. The company currently has two loading docks. The expansion will add two additional docks to keep up with demand for quicker shipping.

“We’ve needed more space for several years,” Roth said. “Last year was a great year for us and, as a result, we finally felt comfortable as kind of a tipping point for us to just go ahead and pull the trigger.”

Roth says it comes down to providing better service to customers both nationwide and around the world.

“Seems like any time you build a building, it’s never large enough for your requirements,” Roth said. “But at any rate, we feel like this additional space will allow us to create new efficiencies for our company.”

Roth says that includes getting things out at a fast pace.

Parts await final assembly. The room is filled with soccer goals, glass for basketball goals and just about anything else needed for outdoor and indoor sports. The company sells to both schools, businesses and the general public.

“We do have a diverse product line and customers ever-increasingly want their orders quicker and quicker,” Roth said. “With the additional space, that just allows us to carry those large inventories that allow us to keep product going out the door.”

Roth says, if all goes as planned, construction will start by the middle of the summer and be completed by the end of the year. It will mean a small addition to the company’s workforce. First Team employs 10 workers and plans to increase that to as many as 14 within a year following the expansion.

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