Press Release
Sometimes it might seem like the only thing that doesn’t change is the fact that things always change.
That might not be any more true than in the business world where new products are invented or tastes change and old products no longer are needed.
It often appears like the most successful businesses are those that are able to anticipate trends or adapt the quickest to new product demand.
Blue Ox, which manufactures towing equipment and other products related to the RV industry, provides an example of how a business not only can survive, but also thrive by changing and reinvesting itself.
Blue Ox is a division of Automatic Equipment Manufacturing Company, which for decades manufactured products related to farm and agricultural uses at a plant in southwest Pender.
Automatic Equipment Manufacturing Company remains Thurston County’s largest employer, selling products throughout the United States, Australia and, recently, in Europe.
About the only evidence that remains today of that agricultural beginning is the 125,000-square-foot facility is in one corner where roller mills are still produced.
Roller, mills, which transport grain through metal tubes such as between bins, now represent less than 10 percent of overall production.
Jerry Karlen, executive vice president of Blue Ox, said only two of the approximately 145 employees as the plant construct roller mills.
The company traces its start to 1925 when it began at Automatic Currying & Dipping Machine Co. The original business began on farm northwest of Pender.
The original plant built items such as back scratchers for livestock, sort of life giant curry comb. Later, the plant added a bucket on top of the scratchers to apply chemicals to keep insects like grubs and flies off cattle.
The company has produced such items as hay racks and other haying equipment, large sprayers, boom sprayers, cattle oilers, insecticides for cattle, livestock waterers and dirt moving equipment.
As demand for various farm products emerged, the company adjusted and manufactured what farmers needed.
The president of Blue Ox is Jay Hesse, whose grandfather, Rollie McQuistan, started the business. At one time early in the company’s history, it had about 200 employees.
Orders for products related to cattle were an important part of the company’s business through the late 1970s, although other products also were made, Hesse said.
One of the company’s most well-known products was the Soil Mover brand dirt mover, which farmers used for such things as leveling fields or creating mounds so that cattle would have dry spots during muddy times.
Demand was so good for them that they also were produced from a plant in Columbus. In fact, they might have been too good.
“They never wore out,” said Karlen, noting that was part of the problem in trying to keep the product going. “Just change the blades and replace the tires from time to time and they kept going.”
In more recent years, increased federal restrictions on filling wet areas has significantly reduced demand. The product line was sold in 1999.
Karlen and Hesse said the 1980s were a tough time for the company, mostly because it was a tough time for farmers and the ag industry overall.
In the early 1990s, the company purchased the Blue Ox line from California. All of the company’s products began being manufactured in Pender, with tow bars and products related to towing one of the primary products.
Tow bars are used by owners of RVs to tow an auto or pickup behind a recreational vehicle (RV). Often, people who travel in RVs will stay an extended time at a location, living in the RV.
The towed vehicle then provides a way for those living in the RV to go to a grocery store or conduct other daily activities without having to drive their RV everywhere.
The company also produces a variety of other products related to the RV industry, including a revolutionary hitch that prevents swaying of campers or fifth wheels being pulled while going down the highway, carriers on RVs for motorcycles and three-wheelers, braking systems and other products to better serve the RV industry.
“We’re always looking for something in recreation,” Karlen said.
The company features its own research and development division, as well as its own engineering division.
Although some of its products have been designed in house, it also has purchased patents of other products.
Karlen said one of the company’s strengths is its ability to market, sell and produce items patented by others.
“We’ve got the name recognition to do it,” he said.
Hesse said part of the company’s success has resulted from community support from Pender. In turn, the company tries to support the community as best as it can, he said.
“We have a lot of out-of-town workers just because of the small population and a couple of other businesses here that attract a lot of the local talent,” Hesse said.
Karlen said the company has been trying to educate students at local schools about the benefits of remaining in their hometown after graduation.
The hope is that students who don’t go to college will work locally. In addition, it wants some who do go to college to return, including those who have technical training.
Right now, for example, the company is in need of some engineers, Karlen said.
The partnership also is evident around town. Blue Ox and the Hesse family have provided many donations to the school, including renovating the old school gym into a community events center, providing college scholarships and promoting internships from Wayne State College.
In addition, Hesse has begun businesses in Pender to help keep alive the town’s main street.
- Story Courtesy of the Norfolk Daily News
