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NEW ULM -- 2020 was the "Year of COVID-19" for many businesses, but Minnesota Valley Testing Labs in New Ulm found itself as busy as ever.
Owner and CEO Tom Berg said MVTL is considered an essential business, with its involvement in the food industry, environmental testing and agriculture.
"So at the end of the year we were pretty much the same as the previous year in revenue and activities," Berg said.
"We were fortunate to have no need for layoffs," said Berg.
The company is very pro-active when it comes to masks and other preventive measures, said Berg. The staff are people trained in sciences and laboratory procedures, who understand the necessity for masks and social distancing.
"We started that early. You know, right at the beginning of the mask thing, the supply was so tight you couldn't buy the darn things anywhere. We have a few women here who are proficient at sewing, and we sewed our own - well, I didn't but they did."
Minnesota Valley Testing Labs continues to be a business-to-business operation. Its services are provided to other businesses and consultants, rather than to individuals. So while the average person in New Ulm may never directly use MVTL's services, the work it does impacts them in ways they may not realize.
A major portion of MVTL's work is analyzing food products, for instance. Food producers need to have their products tested frequently for purity and safety, for quality control, and to make sure the product contains what the label says it contains. MVTL gets samples from the producers and conducts the needed analysis.
It's a quick-turnaround business, said Berg. "They want their results in a couple of days," he said.
MVTL also works with agribusiness. Soil testing is an increasingly important part of farming. Farmers want to know exactly how much fertilizer and other inputs they need to put in their soil, and where to put it so there is no waste. Cooperatives and consultants will send soil samples from a field, grid by grid, to MVTL, which will provide the data they need to draw up their soil input plans.
Berg said manure testing is also a big part of the business. Manure is a valuable asset for fertilizing fields, but not all manure contains the same nutrients.
CBD testing is an area that is growing for MVTL. More farmers are growing cannabis for cannabinoid products, and those farmers are regulated by the state to make sure their product doesn't exceed the THC levels (THC is the substance that gives cannabis its psychoactive properties).
MVTL is constantly investing in new equipment. A piece of analyzing equipment usually has a shelf life of about four years, said Berg, before it needs to be replaced.
But equipment and technology is just part of the business.
"What we sell is knowledge, knowledge that people use to make their products better, safer and more valuable," said Berg. Getting that knowledge to the customer quickly is a big part of the service. This year MVTL is installing a new laboratory information management system that will speed up the delivery of data to the customer.
Berg is a New Ulm native who left home to start his career, and never thought he'd be living and working here. But he came home, "One of the smartest things I ever did," took a job working in a lab at MVTL, and has been here ever since, working his way up to owning the company.
"New Ulm has been very good to me, and I want to support New Ulm by providing good jobs, stable jobs," he said.
MVTL has about 200 employees company wide, which includes branches in Bismarck, N.D and in Iowa.