WireCo WorldGroup increases production in Sedalia with ‘smart’ machinery investments

Published 12:10 am Friday, November 21, 2025

By Chris Howell

WireCo WorldGroup, 24150 Oak Grove Lane, has seen an increase in its wire rope production since making significant investments in the Sedalia facility and others across the state.

“Not just here for Sedalia, but in Missouri as a whole,” plant manager Rob Nezdoba said. “We’ve installed new equipment up in Chillicothe as well that feeds this plant here, so it’s really been a big boon for us as far as increasing our volume manufacturing here in Sedalia.”

Much of the equipment needed to strand the massive cables, known as wire ropes, has been modernized, and WireCo has been adopting that new technology in Pettis County.

“One of the biggest improvements we’ve gotten in the modern equipment is being able to use PLCs, programmable logic controllers,” Nezdoba said. “It’s basically like smart equipment.”

Though WireCo has been investing heavily in this next generation of wire rope machine tech, they still use many of the still functional older machines.

“The old machines, they’re big, huge, massive industrial machines, but they don’t really give you much feedback there are really limited controls,” Nezdoba said. “With the new stuff, it’s way more efficient, we’re able to run it at faster rates, we’re able to get more volume going through it, and it also kind of gives us more feedback.”

That feedback helps monitor every facet of the cable spinning process and lessens the maintenance needs, speeds diagnostics and decreases downtime.

With the increased automation, production has climbed and led to a demand for more skilled employees.

“The biggest need for us right now is to get qualified machine operators out there working on the equipment we have in the plant,” Nezdoba said. “We need at least another 15 people at a minimum.”

WireCo has incentivizing perfect attendance with bonuses for people showing up for their regularly scheduled shifts, winning gift cards, shopping sprees and a chance to win a side-by-side.

Those seeking employment are encouraged to search for WireCo Sedalia Jobs.

“We’re out on a lot of the major job boards,” Nezdoba said. “We’re easy to find if people are looking for us.”

Zach Schamaun, VP of North American Operations, described the ideal WireCo new hire.

“Somebody with discipline to show up every day and work hard,” Schamaun said. “And at the end feel rewarded to know that the rope they’re making is going on a crane that’s building a data center or repairing the highways across the US, drilling an oil well, allowing an aircraft to land on the deck of an aircraft carrier, hanging bridges whether in New York or San Francisco, that’s all coming out of here.”

Schamaun has a unique vantage point on the equipment needed for American heavy industry to run, and he is seeing a resurgence of the nation’s infrastructure.

“The equipment that we’ve installed in Chillicothe, that’s feeding into some of the equipment here in Sedalia that was already in place,” feeding large structures projects for pedestrian bridges, motor vehicle bridges, all sorts of government-funded structures, Schauman said.

WireCo’s rope is used across the nation, but is also found being used just across town.

“When you think of the circular economy, we’ve got a Nucor plant here, right?” Schamaun said. “We compete for employees, but we’re also friends on the side in that we’re putting crane ropes on the ladles that go in Nucor factories. So, buying U.S.-made steel and it comes back to being in ladle cranes in some of the best steel mills in the United States.”

WireCo continues to expand with their five-year strategic plan centered on making more in the United States because it’s the largest market for ropes in the world.

“That’s what we’ve been executing on, so the investment from three years ago was the start of that and it’s bearing fruit,” Dan Burch, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, said. “We just need more people to help us continue to grow.”

Burch stressed the importance of WireCo ropes used in US mining efforts.

“All the mining for copper that’s happening in the West,” Burch said. “Copper goes into every one of our smartphones and anything electronic and all of those mining ropes are coming right out of the Sedalia factory.”

On the factory floor, massive machines rotate spindles of wire around a core to form ropes of larger and larger dimensions. A large machine tests them until failure by stretching them, and some heavy gauge ropes have held over one million pounds of weight..

Paul Bruecher has been working on the floor at WireCo for 24 years and knows his place in the production of wire rope.

“This is my bread and butter here,” Bruecher said. “This is my machine, and I’ve taken ownership of it as much as I can. It’s primarily for drill lines and oil that’s what keeps our economy running.”

Bruecher spins oil-covered metal strands into rope every day and is aware of the many uses for WireCo’s ropes.

“To know that our company is doing everything, including doing that test for the reentry vehicle from Mars,” Bruecher said. “I think they were testing ropes for that. That was awesome.”

Chris Howell can be reached at 660-530-0146.