IRONMEN INDUSTRIES
Juan Reddecopp (left) and his coworkers at Ironmen Industries can do virtually any kind of work for both huge commercial clients as well as smaller customers. Photo by Darcy Finley
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“These people had such confidence in us... and then we got a phone call, literally within a couple of weeks, from a friend who was in manufacturing wanted to sell out their equipment,” David says. “While we were in discussions he said: Well what about the facility? So we leased that 9,000 square-foot facility and kept our old facility to rent out.” “There’s got to be more than just the money as the motive – there’s got to be a passion for what you do, and our goal is to make sure our customers are happy.” The Krahns haven’t looked back since. They are now building a 28,000 square foot shop in addition to a 16,000 square-foot facility they also own. And they’ve doubled their sales almost every year – with virtually no advertising. Word-of-mouth has spread based on the quality of their service. As a regionally-based business, they continue to plan for further growth, looking to develop an online market.
David says Ironmen’s continued mission is clear: to strive for customer satisfaction by offering high-quality, competitive, custom products to a growing clientele...including smaller clients. That’s one of the things that sets Ironmen Industries apart from some of its competitors. It has the capacity for huge commercial jobs, but also the commitment to do the small jobs for the community which helped the Krahns build their business. David says he and his family have seen some manufacturers grow to the point where they start turning down small customers. “We didn’t want to turn down those people, our smaller customers – that helped us to get where we are,” he says. “It can be a challenge, but we feel that they’re just as important.” David stresses that his family didn’t start the business to “rake in the profit.” “Profit was not our main focus – although it does have to be there – but we have a strong desire and a burning passion to build a company, to do the best with what we have been taught, to build something, to give it our best and to serve people,” he says. “There’s got to be more than just the money as the motive – there’s got to be a passion for what you do, and our goal is to make sure our customers are happy.” ■
“We thought we would get into building potato equipment – that seemed like a natural thing because of my father’s experience,” David says. Then John got a call from his previous employer asking if the Krahns would be interested in building equipment for a new potato facility. “We realized this was our opportunity,” David says. That was 2011. Since then, Ironmen has grown by leaps and bounds – right out of its original 40-by-80 square foot shop. “We hadn’t really considered all the contacts we had made over the years and what kind of shocked us at first was the positive response we got from the community,” David says. “Our diversified experience suddenly unified into a pretty strong team with me in the office, my brother with the structural and customs department, and my father with fabricating projects.” Soon, they got a call to build an oversized, custom trailer for hauling large stainless steel tanks. John had done this kind of design and build before. But there was one problem: the trailer the Krahns needed to build was bigger than their shop.
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WINTER 2019
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