Brandon Smith, 44, is the new plant manager at Labconco, in Fort Scott’s Industrial Park.
Smith started on May 9, 2022, replacing Mike Lakeman.
He oversees the daily operations of the plant, with 72 employees.
Smith served in the U.S. Navy for eight years, and has been at the Labconco headquarters in Kansas City, MO for 16.5 years, before coming to Fort Scott.
Labconco is celebrating its 97th year in Kansas City, MO and 34th year in Fort Scott, Smith said “Labconco designs and builds high-quality laboratory equipment.”
“Continuous product innovation keeps researchers safe and meets their exacting and ever-evolving needs for efficiency and performance in chemical and biological ventilation, particulate enclosures, sample preparation, forensics, washers, and water purification,” Smith said. “Labconco’s employees are dedicated to the safety of people and the scientific process, and to the prospect of a world made safer through science.”
Labconco: A Part of the COVID-19 Pandemic Vaccine Research
Labconco has played a big part in the pandemic, Smith said.
“Our biological safety cabinets, which are manufactured in the Kansas City location, and fume hoods, which are manufactured here in Fort Scott, were used in the research and development of the various vaccines currently being used now,” he said. “A large part of our customer base is medical and pharmaceutical research. We are an international company, so our products serviced not just nationally, but globally as well.”
The business has also dealt with the supply disruptions of the pandemic.
“We are constantly dealing with supply chain disruptions to this day since the pandemic started,” he said. “Most of our suppliers have increased their lead times, for various reasons, which in turn has produced new challenges and obstacles on our end with keeping up to the customer demand.”
For more information, visit labconco.com
