Business View Oceania | December 2019

99 100 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA DECEMBER 2019 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA DECEMBER 2019 WALLENSTE IN EQUI PMENT INC . managers put the company one step closer to the consumer. South of the border, nine distributors across the U.S. carry a variety of Wallenstein brands and offer them to dealers that then sell them to the end customer. The company uses a similar distribution model in Central and South America, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, parts of Europe, and some Slavic countries. Horst admits, “We have competitors; everybody should have competitors. It’s no fun, otherwise. Some of our competitors come from China, building good quality products for half the price. They tend to go through the box stores. With those products, warranty is a challenge, whereas, we offer a five-year warranty and we do a great job of standing behind our product. But it’s not all about the product. Some of our competitors make a better designed product. And we take that as a challenge. But our advantage is being the absolute easiest company to do business with. That starts with the layout of our website, inquiries on our website, our order desk, our email response, our phone manner – the whole process of excellent work is outsourced to them on an occasional basis, for example, if they have a specific machine for producing certain parts. All the shops are located within a 60-90 minute radius; all are family-owned and part of the local Mennonite community. “Our production is not on one footprint,” says Horst. “It’s scattered throughout the community and we’re really proud of that. We manage everything on our side with just shy of 30 employees – in production management, sales and marketing, digital technology, accounting. We also hold the entire engineering team. On the shop side (the production side), while we manage all of the inventory and production flow, the employees in those shops do not work for us. They work for the shops that are contracted to build our product. Those shop owners probably work on the shop floor, themselves, because they’re a small business. So, they have a good work ethic and are really invested in our success because it directly impacts their success.” Wallenstein products are sold globally, but Canada is still the single strongest market, where territory Mennonite man. Country life and a family farm kind of environment is one of their priorities. As the business grew, so did production, beyond what he could do in his own shop. So, he went down the road to a friend and asked him to help with production. From there, the business grew like an octopus. Instead of building a large facility, he just started setting up smaller shops of 3,000 to 6,000 square feet with a couple employees at each one. The company evolved into distribution and kept growing with additional product lines under the original owner until September of 2018, when he exited the business and I purchased the company with another partner. It was a healthy business when he handed over the reins and our relationship is still very good. I didn’t know much about manufacturing, but I’m passionate about people. And, fortunately, there was a roster of really good employees with a wealth of knowledge who stayed on.” Today, about a dozen of those small shops are dedicated exclusively to the Wallenstein line. A dozen more also work for other manufacturers;