Evan Carroll’s focus now more than ever is on Black Bros. and its future. Representing the sixth generation of family ownership, in this segment Evan talks about the company’s $100,000 community donation match, surviving the retirements of long-tenured employees, and the potential for a new company heir.
- Give us a “state of business” update. Orders keep coming in. How is it looking like 2024 will shape up? Business is very strong right now. Some big custom projects coming through, which hasn’t been anything new for us over the last five-six years. We’ve been expanding our capabilities by taking on and learning from these projects, helping out other people of course, but also growing our internal knowledge as a company. We’re a company that’s built to handle these orders that are the solution to our customers’ problems. They come to us for that reason. So, it’s been nothing but fun, challenging, hard work that’s been very rewarding to see at the end. To go along with those custom orders though, we do have some nice repeat orders coming up with (a lot of) presses and standard spreaders. So, yeah, we are keeping it rolling in the custom field and also getting some repetition with some larger base orders.
- Black Bros. just announced a donation match up to $100,000 for a new community gathering project that’ll eventually see a bandshell and public space erected in downtown Mendota. How does leadership come to that decision of making such a generous offer?
I think it’s practice what you preach. We’ve always talked about wanting to continue to revitalize and keep Mendota a great place to live, and a great place to work and raise a family. So there was no better opportunity when Amy (Brewer) and Annie (Short) and the team at Reimagine Mendota first started to come out to people about their plans. It was a perfect match for us to really prove we are here to help, and we see a ton of benefits in this for our community. (Black Bros.’) roots are here for going on 125 years, so there’s no better place to invest than in our backyard. Hopefully this is just the big first step toward really getting things rolling. We’ll see where this can take us. - It’s going to be an incredible addition to Mendota… The new Roll Building is coming along smooth. Where have the difficulties been?
The project is 100-percent going smoothly. We had everything lined up well, and people have been meeting or exceeding their deadlines of when they thought resources and materials would come in and when they could install. So, we’re knocking out all these big jobs, all in a row to get ready for the next one. We haven’t ran into many issues because we’ve had good luck with supplies arriving on time, and crews have been showing up on time and finishing on time. So really, the coordination needs to keep going as smoothly as it has and we need to continue stay on top of it the way Jeff (Simonton) and Tim (Phalen) have, and we’ll be just fine. - It’s no secret Black Bros. continues to lose some long-tenured employees (to retirement). … How are we keeping up with it?
Starting with Shaun (Bauer, recently retired), that is a guy that had been here forty-plus years and really took on the coach role with some of our newer assemblers in teaching them the details of panel building, panel safety, and all the things it takes to be a great assembler — which he was for so many years. So losing him was tough, but he definitely shared a lot of great knowledge before he left and was a great resource to not only produce machinery for us, but also teach others the right way to make great machines as well. But, yeah, there’ll be a lot of new hires. We’re at eight hires already this year with more to come in all different departments. So, we’re getting after it. I think the people we’ve brought on, too, have been rock stars and have really adapted to our culture and work-life very well, which is obviously a huge plus. - It is a huge plus, hiring the right people. … IWF is coming up. We’ve talked about our plans for the show. What are the expectations?
We’re expecting a great show, as always. I mean, since I started in 2017 every show I’ve been to has been very successful. Not only in machinery sales, but our transparency as well in just staying out there in front and being the stalwart of the show. The backlog is big and we’re out into 2025, but as we’re making such quality machinery we wouldn’t expect to see any less excitement in our products and any less sales than previous shows. So, we’re full steam ahead, ready to go. Looking forward to another good one. - Definitely an exciting time in Atlanta. Automate Show in Chicago: What was the most interesting thing you saw, and how close are we?
The obvious, simple answer is just seeing robotics in action, seeing a lot of the same (style of) robots in a lot of different areas of manufacturing, and processes, and engineered systems. Basically, that’s going to be the biggest area of growth the world is going to see, the adjustments robots are going to play into everybody’s life. I think going to that show, we saw all the places where robots can fit into everyday applications. Truly, it’s going to add efficiency and — if everything goes well — the work-life balance these robots can provide is huge. There’s no reason to not be excited for what they can change for manufacturing and work, but also what they can provide for everyday life. A big spot right now for integration (at Black Bros.) is material handling. That’s something we’re actively pursuing and want to stay aggressive with. - You have a baby boy due in October! How cool is it to think of some day passing on the family legacy here at Black Bros. to your son?
Molli and I are super excited to start a family together and looking forward to the day he’s here. Of course, (it will be) his life at the end of the day, so it’s not that we are going to push anything for the legacy. We just want to raise a healthy, strong, happy person who treats others the way he wants to be treated. But, it’s special. We show up and work hard every day to chase this common goal and keep our legacy of quality and just a good company to work for and belong to. So, the fact there is a seventh generation that could come and continue to help grow this company with all its history is pretty surreal.
