Efficiency Meets Quality: Lloyd Construction Scales Up Manufacturing For Residential, Commercial Building

Homebuilders, apartment developers and commercial builders all can benefit from a growing manufacturing business in the Sioux Falls area.

Engineered Truss Systems Inc. opened a new 100,000-square-foot facility last year in the Rovang Industrial Park in Brandon after being purchased by Lloyd Companies in 2022.

“We’ve gone from 15 employees to 46 employees since last April,” said Jerry Fromm, president of construction at Lloyd.

“We were able to get ramped up according to plan, and it’s been a very good location for us.”

Engineered Truss Systems was founded in 1985. The company specializes in manufacturing roof and floor trusses, veneer lumber beams and headers, wall panels and wall packs, which are pre-cut, labeled studs ready to assemble on the job site.

“It’s much faster for us to utilize the technology in our plant to build these products,” Fromm said. “The quality is much greater. There’s a process for the customer to review and approve our design along with the framing contractor on the job site who is going to assemble them.”
Wall panels, for example, “can be organized in the manner a clients wants them delivered to a job site over an extended period of time, based on the speed the building is under construction,” he continued.

“We can schedule deliveries, so the product isn’t sitting on the job site for an extended period of time, including just-in-time deliveries.”The approach is ideal for multifamily builders and also can be a strong fit for single-family builders working on both spec and custom homes, Fromm said. In some cases, the products also have been used on commercial and agriculture projects.

Lloyd Construction has used building products from Engineered Truss Systems in a variety of its multifamily projects and has more coming this season, including the next phase of The Current at Dawley Farm Village, which also will include single-family homes for rent.

Lloyd also will be using Engineered Truss Systems products to build both single-family and multifamily housing in Rock Valley, Iowa, to help the community recover from last year’s devastating floods.“We’re shipping wall panels to Rapid City, Des Moines and Omaha, and we have plans to deliver even farther than that,” Fromm said. “With our Brandon location, we have rail access, which also allows us to purchase our raw materials by rail instead of by the truckload, which improves efficiency and is more cost-effective.”

The quality of products from Engineered Truss Systems is superior, he added.

“We’re fabricating our products out of the elements in a state-of-the-art facility with quality control in place,” Fromm said. “It shows in the consistent quality of the work, plus it makes a strong work environment for our team to be in a new, climate-controlled building while still supporting the construction industry.”

The team has grown thanks to a mix of people from Brandon, the surrounding rural areas and from as far as Luverne, Minnesota. About half the team is from Sioux Falls.

“We’re still hiring and would really like to add a second shift,” Fromm said. “We find that people with framing experience are great for our wall line, and on the truss line, anyone who is high-energy and enjoys a physically active job can be a fit. We train, but if you have industry experience, that’s a bonus.”The company also is hiring experienced designers to work with builders on their projects’ needs. Engineered Truss Systems designers take anything from detailed blueprints to a sketched floor plan to help customize the building materials needed. All measurements are reviewed for accuracy, and the designers will create a 3D digital model of the project first, laying out a floor plan, walls and roof structure.

“We share the same core values as Lloyd Cos., so our team members are part of an organization that wants to be involved in the community, solve problems, build long-term relationships and do the right thing,” Fromm said.

Engineered Truss Systems has some capacity to take on new work, but builders looking at starting projects this summer should reach out soon, Fromm said.

To learn more about working with Engineered Truss Systems, call 605-334-0350, or click here.