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MASON TOWNSHIP — Members of the Cassopolis-Vandalia Chamber of Commerce gathered at 19300 Grange Street, Mason Township Tuesday afternoon to welcome a new business to the community.

EQ United, an Elkhart-based logistics provider and RV components manufacturer, hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new 195,000 square-foot Mason Township facility with the Cassopolis-Vandalia Chamber of Commerce. 

“We’re delighted to be opening this facility officially,” said EQ United CFO Nate Carpenter. “We’re super happy about that. We’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time and I don’t think any of us had a vision of what this would end up being. We had a great experience with DJ Construction and Arkos Design.”

The company has consolidated its manufacturing operations, EQ Systems, into the new Mason Township facility where it will house office space, retail and installation space and additional manufacturing areas. The facility is expected to create up to 175 jobs and was supported by a $350,000 Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant. 

Founded in Elkhart in 1914, EQ United, formerly Days Corporation, has two divisions: distribution and logistics and its manufacturing operations, providing components for RVs, trailers and specialty markets. The company currently has three campuses in Indiana and its Mason Township facility marks the company’s first Michigan location.

“It’s not too often that you win a project from Indiana, but that’s something that we would like to change,” said Market Van Buren Executive Director Zach Morris. “Economic development, we call it a team effort. And truly, this was a team effort from a lot of different folks so we’re excited about it. Welcome to Michigan and thanks for choosing us.”

Carpenter thanked the organizations in attendance for their support and looks forward to bringing manufacturing to Southwest Michigan.

“Even though Elkhart is not far from Edwardsburg or Cassopolis, that invisible state line just seems to divide us,” Carpenter said. “We’re excited to be moving up here and while we’re not far from our ‘home’ in Elkhart, we’re still drawing from the employment areas down there and we’re super pumped to be able to reach some of the other areas that we never were able to before. Being able to recruit employees out of Cassopolis, Dowagiac and surrounding communities is opening up a whole new labor pool that we’re really excited to work on.”