Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt was in Perry today, along with State Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry, and others, to help in the groundbreaking of a new product finishing facility for Ditch Witch.

With about 1,000 Ditch Witch employees – most wearing the company’s signature orange T-shirt – and additional guests, the expansion celebration event featured a line up of speakers who highlighted the manufacturer’s importance to the local area and the state, and the importance of all the people who work there.

The event also served as a stop for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers group who is on a nationwide tour to speak to and tell the stories of 2.3 million men and women in the equipment manufacturing industry while traveling 10,000 miles across the country.

Ditch Witch is one of AEM’s main members. The AEM Manufacturing Express bus served as the backdrop for the speakers.

The Ditch Witch Perry campus is headquarters and home to around 1,800 employees who live in Perry and the surrounding communities.

The company was a founder of the underground utility construction industry in America in 1949, and it designs, manufactures and markets one of the most complete lines of underground construction equipment in the country.

Stitt said of Ditch Witch that it’s “such a great company with great people,” and of AEM he said it supports hundreds of thousands of jobs in the country. He also touted Oklahoma as the new, best place to live, citing the top 10 list Oklahoma recently landed on as a state where a majority of people in the nation are relocating to.

“We know that Oklahoma is the best place to live, work and raise a family,” he said. “The American dream is truly alive in our state.”

With the addition of the new paint line, where all of the company’s products will be finished, Ditch Witch will add an additional 170,000 square feet and 100 new jobs, boosting economic development and the industry.

“The expansion further reinforces the company’s long-standing commitment to Perry and the State of Oklahoma, fully supported by parent company, The Toro Company, based in Bloomington, Minnesota,” said a news release of the event by Ditch Witch.

Kevin Smith, vice president of Ditch Witch, delivered welcoming remarks. He shared the impact of every person’s commitment at the company and emphasized how their hard work and dedication help “power people’s lives.”

“What we do matters. Within the first 30 minutes of your day, the work that we do makes a positive impact on people’s lives,” he said. “The first thing you do in the morning might be check your cell phone and look at the weather, or social media. We helped bring that right into your hands. Then you flip on the light switch. We helped deliver that power to your house.”

Kip Eideberg, AEM senior vice president, government and industry relations, talked about the enduring partnership between Ditch Witch and AEM. Dale Garrett, senior direction of operations for Ditch Witch, spoke about how the new facility will impact the business and thanked everyone present – the “sea of orange” – for their work.

Hall is a fourth-generation descendent of a pioneer family, who settled in Perry in 1893. He is a former mayor of the town and spoke to attendees about the relationship between Ditch Witch and the community and the investment each makes in the other.

When speakers finished, the entourage went down the new site, west of the headquarters building in Perry, to put shovels in dirt amidst heavy equipment manufactured by Ditch Witch to make digging easier and shovels obsolete.

Throwing the dirt was symbolic – it represents decades of what Ditch Witch and its people do, and will continue to do.

The event was capped off with raffle giveaways and a demonstration of the power of the Super Witch, an 850-hp trencher that did wheelies across the new construction site.

The new paint facility is scheduled to be completed in early 2027.