Van's Pattern Corp, 11 Sweet St NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49505, US

Portenga Manufacturing Company was founded by James Portenga in 1981 in our present location. Starting with a small amount of wood and metal shop machinery, he opened a patternshop with 2 employees. He added customers and employees over the next few years. In the early 1990's, the company saw enough growth to build an addition, bringing the total plant size to 5100 sq. ft. In the mid-1990's, 3 shell-core machines were added to the mix and Portenga Manufacturing began core production. This continued until in 1997 when an economic downturn in the primary shell-core customers deflated sales. The core machines were sold and Portenga Manufacturing purchased CAD software and entered the computer-aided age. In 1999, Jim retired, selling the business to his son, Chad, and Jay, a long-time employee. In 2003, Portenga Manufacturing acquired a CNC machine, bringing the CNC machining operations in-house. In 2004, two more CNC machines were purchased to add capacity in both size and production. Together, Chad and Jay are taking Portenga Manufacturing Company into the 21st century, determined to meet the ever changing demands of the tooling industry.