(Riverton, WY) – On November 10, Brunton celebrated their one year anniversary of new local ownership and 50th anniversary of manufacturing in Riverton.
The celebration was commemorated with a ribbon-cutting, which included the Riverton Chamber of Commerce and Riverton Mayor Richard Gard. Other prominent members of the local government were also in attendance.
Attendees were treated to food and drinks, along with tours of the facility throughout the evening.
Brunton dates back to 1894 when the first pocket transit was invented by the Colorado-based mining engineer, D.W. Brunton. In 1972, a group of Wyoming businessmen brought the brand’s manufacturing headquarters to Riverton, where the brand’s compasses, transits, and other outdoor navigation and measurement products have continued to be hand-made ever since.
In 1996, the brand was acquired by the Swedish compass manufacturer Silva, followed by Fiskars (Finland) in 2007 and Fenix (Sweden) in 2010. Management was moved to Fenix’s North American headquarters in Colorado, but production remained in Riverton.
New local owners Lauren and David Heerschap provided a few words during the celebration.
“We’re really excited to have been given the opportunity to bring Brunton back home to Wyoming. To bring leadership and management back under one roof,” Lauren said.
“Production has been here in Riverton for 50 years this year. But for the last 25 years, Brunton was owned by foreign ownership, and management was down in Colorado and over in Sweden for a lot of that time, and it’s quite an honor to be the ones to help bring it back.”