08/17/2026
IN GOOD COMPANY: Hansen & Company Woodworks
In 2004, Adam Hansen needed a job.
He found 2,000 square feet to rent, borrowed $8,000 to buy a table saw, a miter box, and a handful of tools, and started building fireplace surrounds for a local developer.
As the project moved along, Adam asked if he could build the cabinets, too.
There was just one problem: He'd never built a cabinet before.
So he bought flat-packed cabinet parts from another shop, took them apart piece by piece, figured out how they fit together, and taught himself the craft.
Twenty-two years later, that same willingness to learn is still at the heart of who Adam is. He doesn't believe passion is where success starts. He believes it starts with curiosityāthe willingness to give something everything you've got, to learn, improve, and keep showing up. In his words, curiosity helps you build knowledge. Knowledge breeds passion, and passion creates joy.
But make no mistake: Adam will be the first to tell you you have to put in the work, too. āThereās no golden ticket. It doesnāt exist. Itās in the daily boring where champions are born, and where the vision comes to life.ā
If there's a better way to do something, he'll keep looking for it. He'll tour hundreds of manufacturing facilities, revise a factory layout more than 80 times, and head back to the drawing board as many times as it takes until the numbers finally work.
Not because someone else expects it. Because he does.
Today, Hansen & Company Woodworks employs people right here in St. Joseph and is preparing to open HCo 2.0, North America's first fully automated frameless batch-one cabinet line. But if you ask Adam what excites him most, it isn't the technology. It's what that technology makes possible. At its best, automation creates more room for people to succeed, not less. It should elevate the work that humans do by tackling the low-level, repetitive tasks and creating more space for workers to problem-solve and innovate.
"The cabinets are just the vehicle," Hansen said.
What really matters to Adam is creating opportunities for people to build meaningful careers, earn good wages, raise their families, and create lives they are proud of without having to leave the central Minnesota communities they love. āIf we can pull that off, thatās community doing what itās supposed to do.ā
On July 23, Hansen & Company opened the doors to HCo 2.0 and invited the community inside for an epic open house! Adam hopes people won't just see a new manufacturing facility. He hopes they'll walk away believing something biggerāthat American manufacturing is alive and well, and that innovation doesn't have to happen somewhere else. It can happen right here in St. Joseph. Way to go Adam!!!
Photos | Rubinski Visual
Story | Mary C Bruno
