Metal fabricators are expanding their operations across Northern Colorado in response to growth in the energy and agricultural industries.

“Things have pretty much exploded,” said Gail Meisinger, the director of human resources at Leed Fabrication in Brighton.

Leed, which also maintains a Greeley location, recently announced that it would hire 40 employees to work at its new facility in Loveland.

Leed’s business has grown substantially in the past two years because of drilling in the Niobrara formation in Weld County.

The company manufactures equipment for oil and gas development nationwide. But most of its business comes from Weld County, where several producers have reported record production partly driven by their Denver-Julesburg Basin operations.

In expanding to Loveland, Leed bought a 22,000-square foot facility once owned by Cee-Jay Tool Co. for $2.1 million. The space already had a great deal of the equipment that Leed could use in its operations.

The move also gave the company an additional labor pool to tap into.

Springs Fabrication, a Colorado Springs-based metal fabricator, expanded into Fort Collins recently when it bought a