Business View Magazine - October 2016 109
and, certainly, we are a tourist destination,” she says,
“in a territory that includes northeastern Minnesota,
northwestern Wisconsin, and Canada, just north of us.
A lot of our business development activity is focused
around those industries.”
And yet, Rand explains how the city is ready to fly even
higher – both literally and economically. “Another no-
table industry that many folks are not aware of is the
aviation cluster in Duluth that’s quite sizable, with a
very significant aircraft manufacturer called Cirrus,”
she says. The Cirrus Aircraft Corporation was founded
in 1984 in southern Wisconsin by brothers Alan and
Dale Klapmeier. It relocated to Duluth in 1994. The
company produces the world’s best-selling, single en-
gine, four-to-five-seat airplane - the SR22.
“They are number one in sales for that segment in the
aviation industry, not only in the United States, but in
the world,” Rand states. “In Duluth, they currently have
675 full-time employees and they are in growth mode
