Superior establishes proving ground at Minnesota pit
Superior Industries recently furnished Hancock Concrete’s Glenwood Pit outside of Glenwood, Minnesota, with aggregate processing equipment, establishing a proving ground for the company’s developments.
The Glenwood Pit will also serve as a training location for Superior employees and as a showpiece for customers, the company says.
According to Superior, the Glenwood Pit gives Superior the
experience of being its own customer – operating its own products and receiving its own construction management services.
“We get to experiment on ourselves and that was a way for us to experience our own service,” says Jarrod Felton, president of Superior.
The company’s investment in the gravel pit provides added benefits to new parties while maintaining the pit’s core purpose of serving the production needs of Hancock Concrete, Superior adds.
“There’s a difference between an actual operation and a staged showpiece where everything is shiny and clean,” Felton says. “We’re actually producing for a real business purpose.”
Superior acquired Hancock Concrete in 2011. Hancock Concrete, which designs and fabricates precast concrete box culverts, round and arch pipe, manhole structures and bridges, turns 100 this year.
Superior’s management team began talking about furnishing the Glenwood Pit with new Superior equipment in 2015. Planning for the project began in October 2015 with newly hired project manager Rustin Mikel acting as a conduit between Superior and Hancock Concrete.
According to Superior, the pit now contains $2 million worth of Superior equipment, including the Patriot cone crushing plant, the Guardian screening plant and the Aggredry twin screw. Superior customers can view the plant and visualize it at their own operations, Felton adds.
“By stepping into the shoes of a customer, Superior was able to see more clearly how they could improve both the design of their products and their service to operators,” he says.
Superior Industries, headquartered in Morris, Minnesota, engineers and manufactures bulk material handling equipment and components.