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I Spent the Last 2 Days at the Vortex Campus

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    I Spent the Last 2 Days at the Vortex Campus

    I got to visit their incredible facility in Barneveld, Wisconsin for the first time yesterday and today.

    Dan Hamilton was looking for 10 to 15 acres in the village’ of Barneveld business park here to build a $14 million headquarters and manufacturing complex for his line of rifle and spotting scopes, binoculars and range finders.

    That was in 2013.

    Today, Hamilton and his Vortex Optics owns virtually all of the 150 acres in the business park where $35 million in improvements include a 280,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing facility, two indoor shooting ranges, a showroom that displays the company’s latest products, and a 12,000-square-foot stand-alone daycare and preschool center for his employees that is also open to the public.

    Vortex is now building another 100,000 sq ft product warehouse. This all started as a Wild Birds Unlimited franchise in Dan's garage. He was prompted by birding customers to create a line of binoculars and used suggestions as to what they wanted in his design. That tiny part time business has now grown to over 300 employees.

    We got to tour the facility, shoot in the indoor ranges (100 yard, 50 yard, and 25 yard). Watched a scope mounting demonstration. Participate in shoot/no shoot drills as backup to police officers in incredible video virtual scenarios. This was an adrenaline dump exercise that was very real, very exciting, and sometimes very scary. All of this was in their new 55,000 sq ft. Vortex Edge Shootin and Training Center. This facility also houses a movable wall "shoot house" for LEO training. This shoot house has real furniture, with controllable, lighting, sound effects, and real bad guys. The shoot no shoot drills are done with paint ball guns. The whole area can be monitored from catwalks above.

    The people there are so awesome. It is a family atmosphere. It is easy to see why they love their jobs.

    Here are some pictures.

    Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
    Last edited by Mary; 10-15-2021, 10:12 AM.

    #2
    Awesome, thank you for sharing.

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      #3
      oh wow!!! I had no idea they had grown that extensively! Really nice Mike, glad you were able to share this. Very impressive.

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        #4
        That’s too cool!

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          #5
          Cool stuff! Which one are you in the photo? I'd like to put a face with the name.

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            #6
            That's neat

            Sent from my moto g power (2021) using Tapatalk

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              #7
              That's awesome Mike! It's a good business move to educate your distributors about your products as much as possible. It only helps move more products.

              And having on campus child care of that size is impressive! Just shows how much they value and care about their employees.

              The fish are biting, and there's hogs to be kill-t. Gotta go!

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                #8
                Originally posted by HeyMikey View Post
                Cool stuff! Which one are you in the photo? I'd like to put a face with the name.
                I am second from the left.

                The fellow in the wheel chair is Tim Austin. He is one of my best friends. When he started with Vortex they had 9 employees. The owner (Dan Hamilton) told him he would have a job for life whether Vortex made it or not. Obviously they made "made it" and Tim has been an integral part of their success. He was my first sales rep. He is now part of the customer care team.

                Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

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                  #9
                  Thanks that's interesting.

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                    #10
                    Cool stuff sir. Serious growth of Vortex…that’s awesome.


                    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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                      #11
                      That is awesome!

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                        #12
                        'merica

                        Great thread

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                          #13
                          Awesome !

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                            #14
                            Man, that had to be a great experience. I personally dont own any Vortex products but lots of my hunting buddies do and it is all high quality stuff.

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                              #15
                              That looks really cool Mike!!!

                              Bisch


                              Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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