Company Profile
Central States Enterprises, LLC

Reprinted from Grain Journal March/April 2015 Issue

If a manufacturer is a customer of its own products using them on the job day-in and day-out, there’s no doubt it will stand behind its reputation. It’s a testament to how much the company believes in the products it sells. And when it comes to safety equipment, there’s just no better sales pitch than that.

Such is the case with Salina, KS-based Central States Enterprises (CSE), the parent company of both the SafetyQuip Company and Central States Fumigation and Services. The two-pronged company’s products go hand-in-hand: SafetyQuip provides a wide array of personal protective equipment (PPE), sanitation supplies, pest control products, and up-to-date product stewardship and training, while Central States Fumigation provides fumigation and pest control programs for a wide variety of structures, with its crews utilizing SafetyQuip’s products out in the field.

“Most of the things we promote and sell are the same products that we use in our company,” says Roger Sanborn, president and CEO. “These are the products that we like to endorse to our customers.”

Fortunately, CSE doesn’t have to look far for them. In the last four years alone, its fumigation branch, along with its Gulf Coast division, has fumigated over 15,000 facilities and buildings including steel and concrete tanks, flat storage buildings, temporary storage and bunker piles, warehouses, railcars, barges, containers, and vessels, among other structures.

In short, CSE are the “hit men of the stored product industry,” according to the company’s website. “You put out the hit, and we will fulfill the contract.”

Although the slogan is a funny one, make no mistake, these “hit men” are serious about the business of protecting both employees and their customers’ commodities.

A Man, a Truck, and a Vision

Central States Fumigation and Services was founded in 1995 by Sanborn himself who originally established the company to satisfy growing customer demand for quality and dependable fumigation services in the central plains area of the United States. Hence, the company’s name.

“We’ve been in business as of today, 20 years,” recalls Sanborn. “We started on February 1, 1995. Prior to that, I was working at Evans Grain Company, which was sold in 1991 to Koch Industries. Then Koch started selling off elevators, and I needed to figure out something to do,” he says.

Sanborn decided to stay in the grain business, and with just one truck and himself as the sole employee, he set out to build his company from the ground up, with not much more than a desire to meet a need.

“My goal was to serve the demands of the customer,” Sanborn explains. “Based on all the evidence, and on all the customers that were out there, there seemed to be a need for quality services in the Midwest. That’s basically how we got started.”

That singularity of vision and purpose is what has helped the company expand into the successful business that it is today. Although the journey hasn’t been without its growing pains, Sanborn’s driving philosophy of serving customers and spending face time with them is what helps keeps the company ticking.

“Over the years, we’ve had a lot of success, and we’ve had a few failures,” Sanborn admits. “Our experience is what has earned us our customers’ loyalty, and being trustworthy, solving problems for the customers, working with the customers – it’s all related to the bottom line success and the growth of the company. Our philosophy is to work face-to-face with our customers. We don’t hide behind a computer or technology,” he notes. “Honesty and hard work have contributed to our growth.”

As the company continued to develop over the years, the eventual addition in 2004 of the services and products provided by both the Import/Export Division in the Gulf Coast and The SafetyQuip Company in 2002 has only enhanced CSE’s position as a premier provider of commodity fumigation services. Although the company has grown substantially, CSE has not lost its focus on being an industry leader in the fumigation marketplace, and of course, maintaining customer satisfaction as its priority.

Full Services Here and Interests Abroad

Today, CSE has 43 full-time employees, with regional offices in Houston, TX, New Orleans, LA, Longview, WA, and Portsmouth, VA. The company customizes every customer’s work order to meet and exceed their needs. From sampling, inspection, detection, and  remediation, CSE generates its quotes and work orders from several factors including the structure type, structure size, temperature, insect infestation, and length of time to complete the job.

For domestic customers, CSE offers a number of services:

Guaranteed Grain Quality

Management Program

• Sampling.

• Inspection.

• Detection.

• Remediation.

General Pest Control Programs

• Pheromone trapping.

• Crack and crevice treatments.

• Precision ULV fogging programs.

• Customized facility spray applications.

• Empty grain bin spray applications.

Fumigation Services

• ProFume® fumigations.

• Food plant fumigations.

• Methyl bromide alternative fumigations.

• Post-harvest grain fumigations.

• Residue-free (phosphine) fumigations.

• Recirculation fumigations.

• Inland container fumigations.

• Railcar fumigations.

International operations. Internationally, CSE recently sold a business it started in Perth, Australia where it maintains close ties with the new owner. According to Sanborn, the move is a strategic one that is designed to position the company for future success both abroad and domestically.

“Australia is obviously a growing market,” notes Sanborn. “The United States is a large part of feeding the world, so exports are always going to be big. All the seed companies are trying constantly to make drought-resistant seeds to help in regions that don’t have the necessary moisture,” he adds.

“We’re growing continually into various markets to position ourselves for success. Our employees are an important part of that equation.”

Making Safety a Priority

Safety is a priority that Central States lives and breathes every day. “Our largest concern is employee safety. We preach that daily,” Sanborn says.

“Through The SafetyQuip Company, which we started in 2002, we serve the needs of our customers to provide fall protection,” he explains. “We offer a full line of safety equipment, fall protection, eye protection, and all the PPE requirements.”

The SafetyQuip Company recognizes the importance of providing only the highest-quality products while having the capability to back up each sale with additional technical information, training, equipment repair, and calibration, including:

• Eyes, ears, and head protection: safety glasses, face shields, welding shields, ear plugs, caps, and hard hats.

• Body protection: gloves, overboots, Tyvek suits, chemical resistant suits, harnesses, fall protection systems, cooling vests, life jackets, and basic coveralls.

• Respiratory protection: dust/mist masks, respirators, full-face respirators, SCBAs, and supplied air respirators.

• Environmental monitoring: basic pump sets, personal detection badges, and electronic detectors that can be downloaded to a PC.

• Work place protection: signs, brooms, eye wash stations, and lockout/tagout kits.

SEALZ-ALL spray glue. The SafetyQuip Company also sells a custom-made spray glue called SEALZ-ALL, which does not contain CFCs or any other ozone-depleting chemicals. This specially formulated product adheres to all clean and dry surfaces and structures. Its quick-drying, fast-tack formula is also heat-resistant for temperatures above 100 degrees and cold resistant below 32 degrees for maximum adherence.

Sanborn adds that The SafetyQuip Company is now offering online ordering by visiting www.safetyquipco.com.

Staying True to Its Values

“We provide our employees with all the tools necessary to succeed, and they thankfully have the desire to reciprocate by going out and getting the job done to our customers’ satisfaction and adhering to all of our policies and procedures,” explains Vice President Richard “Thadd” Bigler. “We’ve got a solid team, and we emphasize teamwork within our culture.”

CSE isn’t just mindful of people, but of the environment as well. The company is very self-conscious of the environmental footprint it leaves on the earth, which is why all its FMP paperwork and work orders are done digitally. Additionally, the company recycles all of its cardboard in-house and frequently uses environmentally-friendly chemicals, such as SEALZ-ALL. They have also been a long-time user of Eco2Fume and Profume in place of Methyl Bromide, a known ozone depleting compound.

“We’ve instilled in our employees a strong work ethic, being self-motivated, and a hunger to serve our customers. We are also responsible stewards of the environment,” says Sanborn. “I’d say through our products and services, we’ve become the premier provider of commodity fumigation services throughout the United States.”