Royal Crown expands

Royal Crown Dental Lab is expanding.

The lab, located at 116 Broad St., manufactures dental crowns and bridges and will add dentures and mouth guards to its product line. Owner Rob Fuglestad said the company recently bought more space in an adjacent building to make room for its new operations.

"This way we can do it all in house," Fuglestad said, noting the expansion doubled the lab's floor space.

Royal Crown, with help from the Red Wing Area Chamber of Commerce, is holding an open house Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Fuglestad said dentists in Red Wing and Rochester, the cities where Royal Crown does most of its business, have said there is a local demand for dentures and other similar products.

In addition to filling a hole in the market, Fuglestad said he just likes the idea of the expansion.

"I always wanted to make a full service studio," Fuglestad said.

In addition to space, Royal Crown has added employees.

When he moved his lab to Red Wing in early 2009, after 11 years in Rochester, he had three full-time employees and one part-time worker. Today, Fuglestad employs six full-time workers and one person part time.

Fuglestad said it was nice to be able to add jobs in a time when the economy is rough and he joked that even in bad times people still need teeth.

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