Cedar Rapids-based Van Meter Inc. has announced it is the newly authorized Rockwell Automation distributor in the greater Duluth-Twin Ports, which extends into northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. Van Meter distributes electrical, automation and mechanical solutions in the Midwest. Mielke Electric Works Inc. was its previously authorized distributor. A press release said that globally, Van Meter is Rockwell Automation’s sixth-largest distributor, and the company has sold Rockwell Automation solutions in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota since the 1930s. “This investment is a natural expansion of our industrial automation territory,” Van Meter Inc. President and CEO Lura McBride said in a prepared statement. “We’re excited and confident in our ability to serve this new market. We are committed to providing the support, expertise and inventory area manufacturers need to innovate and address today’s important business opportunities.”