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Drake, Inc.

Drake Inc. • 402-362-1863http://www.drakeinc.net

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF QUALITY AND SERVICE IN STRUCTURAL REPAIRS

Reprinted from Grain Journal May/June 2016 Issue

There are times when the decision to venture out into business isn’t a lengthy, drawn-out process but rather the result of a simple verbal agreement or a handshake. That was certainly the case for Dave Drake, owner of the family-run Drake, Inc., a full-service provider of concrete maintenance and structural repair services for the grain industry located in Waco, NE.

Drake recalls how he was between jobs when approached by his son, Dustin, about opening up shop – a suggestion that seemed like a natural fit given his extensive experience in grain.

“As of May, I’ll have been doing this type of work for 39 years,” he explains. “Dustin said that he’d go to work for me, if I wanted to start my own company. I was between jobs, and I said, ‘Okay,’ and it’s been a really good partnership.”

Drake, Inc. officially opened its doors for business after incorporating in June 2005 immediately following Dustin’s graduation from college. Drake says they took on their first job in August of that year, and they haven’t looked back since.

“The growth has been excellent,” Drake says. “We started out with a crew of five people, and now we’ve grown to 30 employees working with us.”

When asked what factors have contributed to the company’s success over the past decade, Drake doesn’t offer any magic bullets or fancy sales pitches. It basically boils down to just two things: service and quality.

“I think what’s helped us grow as a company is just the service and the quality of work that we do – that stands out because of the number of repeat customers that we have worked for year after year at different locations at their different facilities,” Drake notes.

“We get leads, but we get a lot of referrals from big coops. There have been so many mergers with the big companies. Those facility managers all talk, and if we do a good job for one, they’ll refer you to another customer or another facility within their network. That’s why I say we’ve been having a lot of success with repeat customers. It’s word of mouth. Those regional guys and local managers talk,” he adds.

Services Offered

When you offer reliable services that people can count on, it’s no wonder that word spreads. Today, Drake is known for a variety of products and services within the grain market, including:

• Structural repair.

• Gunite liners.

• Hopper repair and installation.

• Tornum KanalSystem aeration and unloading installation and retrofit.

• Crack repair.

• Sandblasting and painting.

• Roofing.

“We do a lot of the structural gunite liners. One of our specialties that not many other people do is the KanalSystem. That’s the aeration and unloading system for grain reclaiming at the bottom of tanks,” Drake says.

He notes that the company’s specialization with KanalSystems air assist unloading floors has proven to be a competitive advantage, given their popularity in the industry, as the growth of larger facilities continues to dominate the landscape.

“It seems kind of amazing how many new terminal facilities they’re building,” Drake observes. “It seems like there’s a bunch of them going up all over the country making it easier for them to move grain. They truck it in from their satellite elevators into those facilities – that’s probably one of the things we’ve noticed in the last few years. And those are the facilities where we put our KanalSystems in; those have really caught on, and they’re dual-purpose. They aerate and unload the bin.”

Drake notes that the company also recasts hoppers and dump pits, installs gunite liners, and repairs explosion fallouts, as well as redoing some roof caps. “We also do some painting and roofing, but that’s not a major part of our business,” he says.

Taking Care of Employees, Customers

Regardless of the service provided, all of the company’s work is backed by a warranty. The reason for that is simple, according to Drake: “I guess our philosophy is that if we installed it, and you have a problem with it a year, two years, or three years after the warranty is out, and it’s something that happened to equipment that we supplied or something that we did, we’re going to fix it. We’re going to take care of the problem until the customer is satisfied.”

Most of the company’s customers are located in the Midwest, but Drake says that he has received some inquiries from Canada, although he has not pursued that market actively. He notes that the company’s business fluctuates with the market and how its customers are faring, depending on the year.

“The growth in the grain market has to do with the volume of grain that our customers have, and then, of course, what profits and margins they’re getting,” Drake explains. “When their profit starts to go down, then they have a lot less expansion, which is probably going to affect us.”

To help keep the business running smoothly despite what’s happening in the market, Drake says that hiring and taking care of good employees helps ensure that the company will continue to earn repeat business.

“We try to keep our quality employees, so we provide a pretty fair benefit package for them as far as health and life insurance, a profit incentive, and a 401(k) program,” he says. “I guess our corporate philosophy is that you keep good employees that do quality work, and you have your repeat customers. It’s pretty easy to run a business, as long as you follow those rules that your customer needs to be taken care of. Taking care of our customers is our primary rule. I’ll be honest with them, and we get along pretty well.”

The company invests further in its employees through an annual training week in December. Some topics covered include swing stage scaffolding safety, CPR, and respiratory protection. Drake says “every year I tell our employees that we are all one team. Without our crews running the jobs, there would be no need for the office.”

Drake, Inc.’s commitment to people and family is one of the reasons the company has been going strong for 10 years now. In fact, according to Drake, the company’s own historic milestone was overshadowed by another celebration for a member of the family.

“Our 10th anniversary was in June 2015, but we had a wedding in the family, and we just didn’t have time for a party. I have to have an 11th anniversary party – we were worn out after Dustin’s wedding,” he jokes.


About Drake Inc.

Waco, NE
402-362-1863
http://www.drakeinc.net

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