- From metal engineering to Topeka Foundry and ironworks, to crane rentals, to motorcycles, and much more.

HME Inc. is a local business that has experienced a tremendous expansion, resulting in positive impact in our community.

Stay tuned.

HME coming up on this episode of "Working Capital."

(graphics buzz) (soft music) - [Announcer] Funding for "Working Capital" is provided by The Friends of KTWU and by the Raymond C. and Marguerite Gibson Foundation.

(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to "Working Capital."

I'm so excited for today's show featuring a powerhouse organization here in Topeka.

Over the past 30 years, HME Inc. has experienced tremendous growth, creating hundreds of jobs, and making positive economic impact on our community.

It's an honor to be here with John Haas, president of HME Inc., and Rob Mohan, chief operating officer for HME.

John and Rob, thank you so much for joining me today on "Working Capital."

It's great to have you both here.

So, in my discussions yesterday about HME, I was absolutely shocked with how much service and impact you've had on our community.

Let's start back with the creation of HME Inc. How did it come about?

- So, it's a little bit of an interesting story.

I was taking a class at KU, working all my masters, and there was a class project to make a business plan.

And we came up with creating a metal fabrication company to build metals for construction projects.

And did the business plan.

And actually, before the class was even done, started bidding some work to some of the local contractors, and it just kinda took off from there.

That was about 1994.

Within a couple years in 1996, incorporated, quit my real job, and started the company.

- Oh, very cool.

- So, did that out of a rental building for a couple years.

And in 1998 we built where we're at now at 2828 Northwest Button Road, the HME facilities.

And I think we've just kinda grown, added onto the building, added onto the properties about every two years after that.

- Very cool.

And it sounds like you've definitely added on, I know that you have acquired multiple other segments in the industry and everything.

Where are you at now?

What's encouraged you all to just kinda keep acquiring as you went after you moved forward with your business?

- You know, I think I've always felt like it kinda ebb and flow with what the market might bring to you.

When opportunities come along, you take a look at it and, you know, you say, "You know, does it look like a good deal or not?"

I don't think there's no magical business plan or anything in place that says, "Hey, we're gonna go out and do this."

- So it's kinda like opportunity arises.

- Opportunity arises, and I've always been pretty optimistic that we can make anything work.

So, we go after it, and if it looks like it's a good deal and a new adventure, then we take it on.

But I think overall, our core business is in the metal fabrication, and it probably always will be.

The other businesses have kinda developed alongside it and we've been able to share some overhead and some good people throughout the businesses, but we always kinda fall back on the metal fabrication and everything that it brings to our organization as a whole.

- Sure, sure.

So, Rob, tell me a little bit about the projects you all have worked on.

I think a lot of people in Topeka, you're kind of like one of Topeka's little best kept secrets, but we don't want you to be a secret.

You know, we wanna talk about your accomplishments.

What type of projects have you worked on here or elsewhere?

- We've done a variety of different projects, from high schools to airplane hangers to, heck, we did a project for SpaceX.

- Wow.

- We built a structure.

It was about 200-foot tall structure that they could store rockets in.

So, in Topeka, just a recent project, Kansas Expocentre renovation.

We did the steel for that.

There was some really long span trusses.

It was a really neat project.

We just wrapped up a sizable project for Boeing.

We haven't delivered all the steel yet, but Boeing's building a manufacturing facility.

There's about 1000 semi-truckloads of steel on that project.

- Wow!

- We did partner with some other fabricators to help us out just due to the size of that project.

But about half of that, or just under half of that's fabricated here in Topeka.

We participated in rebuilding Joplin after the tornado back in 2015.

- I read about that.

That's pretty tremendous.

- Yeah.

We did the high school.

It's a very, very large high school.

- [Val] Wow.

- It was really nice to be part of that, rebuilding that city after what happened to it - Absolutely, that was such a tragic experience.

- And the structure, you know, has a lot of life safety measures built into it.

It's kinda interesting.

There's a shelter below the building and in the event of a major tornado, the building itself is designed to break away from the structure and leave the structure below ground intact.

- [Val] Wow.

- Laramie High School.

- So, I guess not everything's here, you know, in Kansas or right around, but, you know, Denver.

That's pretty amazing.

- Yeah, believe it or not, I would say a larger percentage of our work is actually outside of Kansas.

- [Val] Uh-huh.

So, Meow Wolf was a unique project in Denver, but we've done a lot of projects in Denver.

We actually have an office in Denver now, but there was a mini mile-high stadium that we built- - Nice.

- At the Broncos Stadium.

- Okay.

- And actually, we're doing a indoor training facility there.

Lots of athletic venues.

Amazons are really big right now.

- Wow.

- They're million square foot warehouses.

Data centers are real strong right now, so we've been building a lot of data centers.

And basically, the way the industry works is, if there's a need or something changes, we're trying to be there to be at the front of getting that work.

- Wow, well, very impressive, what you're doing here and around the state and outside the state.

But we're gonna take a short break.

We'll be back in just a moment.

Stay with us.

- [Announcer] To catch up on previous episodes of "Working Capital," scan the QR code with your phone, or go to www.watch.ktwu.org.

- Thank you for staying with us.

I am back with John and Rob from HME Inc. John and Rob, so, we've been talking about the economic impact that you have had here within the state.

I know that there was some support that was done by JEDO, Go Topeka.

Can you fill us in a little bit on that project?

- Sure, yeah.

So, Shawnee County, state of Kansas, JEDO, and Go Topeka all have great programs to help businesses like us expand and grow, and Project Finish Line's been a big part of that.

I believe the JEDO publication that was put out stated that our plan is to grow by about 300 employees.

- Wow.

- And the anticipated economic impact will be about 1.2 billion.

- Wow, that's pretty tremendous.

And what exactly does the project entail?

Is it just expansion of the business and the industry?

You know, the new jobs, what kind of new jobs are available?

- Yeah, it's a little bit of everything you said.

You know, growing the business, bringing more jobs to the state, to the city, and that the program just allows you to grow your business and help grow the economy.

- That's great.

Sure, sure.

So, how many total employees do you have throughout?

- So, right now, we're about 630 employees.

- Okay, and what did you start at when you first...

It sounds like, what, just a couple of you with an idea.

- Well, ideally, it was just me- - Just you, okay.

- And another classmate.

We were with our class project, so a couple of us there, but my garage.

And go from there.

- That's very impressive.

So, one to two to 600 plus.

- Yeah.

Right.

- Wow.

So, I know that what I learned, I've always known HME is metal fabrication.

There is an HME group now that encompasses five different aspects of industry, I suppose.

Would you mind going into what your different groups are that are included within that?

- Sure, sure.

So, along the way, we've acquired different companies or we've started different companies.

And just kinda thinking from a timeline standpoint, I think Peak to Peak Engineered Railings is another one that started in my new garage, or house that I'm at now.

(Val chuckles) - Probably a little bigger than the original.

(laughs) - Yeah, yeah.

So, it's a aluminum hand railings company and they're all mechanically-fastened together, so they go real well with the wastewater and water treatment plants that we build.

- Okay.

- So, they're fully anodized.

We ship 'em out to the field in pieces and the general contractor's able to put 'em together.

So, I think that was about 2011 or '12.

Cycle Zone, it's over on Highway 24.

I've always been an enthusiast in the off-road dirt bike riding and that kind of thing.

And Mike Patterson- - Me too.

- Approached me about buying the business and, you know, I think it was a little bit of a crazy ideal to jump into, but we did it and kinda combined that with a metal sales store at the same time to cover some overhead cost of the two businesses.

And it's expanded.

I think initially, it had KTM and Arctic Cat, and now we're up to... Well, we just purchased Topeka Powersports- - [Val] Very cool.

- Out on South Topeka Boulevard, so we're moving it over to Cycle Zone.

But we've got Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, KTM, Can-Am, Stark electric motorcycles, Bad Boy Mowers, and Hustler Mowers.

- Wow.

- And then tracker boats.

So, just kinda wanting it to be, like, the one-stop shop for outdoor fun.

- Sure.

Cycle Zone is one of my favorite stores.

I ride motorcycles, so yeah, it's one of my favorites to go into.

And I'm curious with the Cycle Zone project, it seems a little different from what other ventures you're into within the industry, but it does expand your offerings, I'm sure, related to offering rental equipment.

Are you able to rent side by side or bikes, or anything- - So- - Like that from there?

- You know, and that maybe goes into our next segment, Haas Crane.

We started Haas Crane in 2019 with the ideal of renting construction equipment.

And it really kicked off.

I hired a manager for Jeff Callen, who's just been a phenomenal guy to lead that side of the business.

And so, I think we have over 200 pieces of equipment, anywhere from dozers to cranes to forklifts to skid loaders to trailers and side by sides.

- Very cool.

- In fact, we have several of the side by side on rentals with trailers that we've built at HME.

So, yeah, it's kinda one of those ones that we've kind of ebbed and flow with what people need.

And that's kind of been a little bit of our theme, is that we ebb and flow with what the market might be.

So, Cycle Zone's definitely an interesting industry.

It's a tough industry.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

It fluctuates an extreme amount with the economy, 'cause it's a little bit of throwaway income for people, you know.

They're fun activities, but when the economy takes a dive, fund's kinda the first thing on the list that you chop.

- Unfortunately so.

I get that.

- So, it has some ups and downs, but we really enjoy it and we've got a good group over there right now, so.

- That's great.

- Lots of fun.

- Well, that's great.

Well, we'll learn a little bit more about Cycle Zone and everything else HME does.

I'm sure all of you're just as impressed with the incredible growth that you all have experienced over the past 30 years.

We have so much more to learn.

So stay with us.

We'll be right back.

(lively music) And we're back with John Haas, president of HME Inc., and Rob Mohan, COO for HME Inc. Let's continue our discussion.

We've had great discussion on the Cycle Zone project, you have lots of other industries within your group, and it sounds like every couple years or so, you're adding on a different aspect to industry.

Talk about Topeka Foundry a little bit.

That's something I don't believe I knew anything about, that you had acquired Topeka Foundry.

- Topeka Foundry is a diverse company.

They have a commercial door company, a machine shop, and a structural fabrication facility as well.

Topeka Foundry, their history is really neat.

It goes back to 1878, where they were a foundry.

And over the years, they evolved into supporting war efforts.

And then after that, they evolved into a machine shop, and a structural fabrication shop, is what we see it as today.

And the other unique thing about it, it's not your typical machine shop.

We have very, very large equipment.

We have vertical lathes with 12-foot chucks and horizontal lathes with 192-inch centers.

And so, a lot- - Wow.

- Of really big equipment that could service very heavy, large industry projects.

Commercial Door Company is another.

It kinda compliments the construction side of things, 'cause you think if you build a high school, how many doors are in the building?

You know, there's lots of them.

You build a hotel, and there's doors into the room, there's closet doors, bathroom doors.

So, our Commercial Door Company has grown and done very well.

And it's been a great segment of the group.

And the Topeka Foundry structural shop, it's directly complimentary to our HME structural fabrication.

- Very cool.

So, any industry or a business organization and wanna build a building, it sounds like they can come to you all and you have everything you need.

- Yeah, we can support obviously the structure itself, the doors, and we also have a steel erection division.

So, we have a team of folks that go out and actually put the structures up, and we've performed that work.

We have crews in South Dakota right now.

- Wow.

- Washington State, we've done work there.

We're kind of all over the country putting steel up.

- So, how do people get word about you from across the country?

You know, a pretty cool establishment here in Topeka, Kansas.

It's pretty neat that we have someone from here venturing out all over the US.

- So, really, to back up a minute, at our core, we're a fabrication company.

Usually, when you talk about building construction, there's a general contractor that puts together the big building, and we do the steel.

- Yes.

- So, we have built relationships with a lot of general contractors.

And maybe it starts with a job here in Kansas, maybe it's a job out at Fort Riley.

And then that general contractor maybe follows the federal, you know, bases around the country.

And so, the next thing you know, or in Washington or wherever it might be.

- The board of good quality spreads, I'm sure.

- South Dakota, I think, is a federal facility.

So, aviation has been good to us.

McConnell Air Force Base was a big one.

We've built some great relationships there and we've taken those to different areas.

We've got some pretty good-sized projects in Newport News, Virginia for the naval ship building yards.

- [Val] Oh.

- So, it's kind of been relationship building.

We try to do, you know, the best job that we can.

Sometimes we make mistakes, but we always try to back up what we've done to make sure that it's right.

And from that, we've developed great relationships with general contractors, and they're calling us to work all over the country.

- That's awesome.

It sounded like you've had growth in 2012, '13, '15, '17, '19, '24.

I'm sure it probably doesn't stop here.

Do you have plans to continue growing or what is an idea of what's in your future pipeline?

- We actually just completed a sizable project, a 100,000 square foot paint facility- - Wow!

- Located on the main campus off Button Road.

- [Val] Okay.

- So, we just moved into that about a month ago.

We're getting that ramped up and going.

And, to be honest, as history can tell, John always has an idea going, (Val laughs) and there's lots of them cooking, so.

And as John mentioned earlier, you know, ebb and flowing with what's going on in the industry.

We know we wanna grow.

We know we have some ideas of automation, as well as adding more personnel.

It's just, I think, observing how the industry is moving and growing and what does that look like.

- Sure.

Seizing opportunity when it comes.

- Right.

- Absolutely.

- And I think, you know, as Rob said, that there's no magical formula for exactly how much you're gonna grow.

It's a matter of kind of ebb and flowing with the market and seeing, you know, what's out there.

You know, if the economy is strong, then we're growing with the economy.

If it's slowing down a little bit, then we're slowing down.

We always try to bid more work than we can do, because we don't know when schedules change.

We don't know if we're gonna get it all.

And then sometimes, we do get a whole bunch at one time.

And so, we do have to grow.

So, we kinda ebb and flow with the needs of the work that we have.

And, you know, we have a great, large backlog right now.

And so, it's pretty easy to grow into that backlog.

And, you know, I think the other thing is, we have to continue to invest in technology and being the fastest that we can at building what we're building.

Being the most efficient allows us to be profitable and be able to be competitive in the market.

And it feels like if we slow down for just a minute, that we lose that edge, and somebody else is right there to take it away from you.

- Sure.

- So, you know, you gotta stay on your game and continue to push.

As far as planned growth, it feels like that as soon as we're at capacity of what we can do with this new paint shop that we'll be adding on again.

- Wow.

- And I think just to back up a little bit, talking about what JEDO and some of the organizations within Topeka and the state have done to help us, we are in a very tight competitive market.

And so, the funds that the city can, or the state can help put out with, like, property tax abatement, it really helps us to be competitive in the market.

And without that, sometimes, it's hard to be able to expand.

So, you know, really a great shout out to all the folks at JEDO and the state for being team members and helping us- - Absolutely.

- To be able to grow.

- Yeah, it's great to have that opportunity with our community organizations, for sure.

And we have one more segment with John and Rob of HME Inc. We're going to take a short break.

We'll be right back.

- [Announcer] To catch up on previous episodes of "Working Capital," scan the QR code with your phone or go to www.watch.ktwu.org.

- All right, John and Rob, we have about five minutes left in our discussion for about 40 minutes worth of content, so we're gonna do this quick.

There are a lot of small business owners out there looking to start their own industry, their own business.

What kind of advice would you have for them based upon your past 30 years of experience?

- You know, I would think probably the number one thing is, when you're looking for a business or something to do, you need to make sure that the need is greater than the supply.

So, that old saying, economic saying, "Supply and demand."

If you're trying to go into market where the supply of people that do that for the demand is higher, then you're probably not gonna be successful, but if you find an industry or a market where the demand is higher than the supply of businesses that provide it, then you got a good chance.

And I feel like in everything that we do, that's one of the things that's always a key factor.

- Very good.

- You know, I think you have to be persistent.

You've gotta be humble, you know, and I think one of the greatest things that I have been able to do through the years is, I have this saying that I try to hire people that are smarter than I am.

And if you can do that, you find it easy to be able to hand off things, you know, like Rob over here with the operations or, you know, our account managers or our project managers, our engineers.

You know, at one time, I was doing everything myself starting out, but as I could hand off, if I could hand off to somebody smarter than me, you know, that was a great find.

And I've found that through the years that hiring great people is probably the number one thing that allows you to grow.

- Absolutely.

I love that, hiring people smarter than you, because I think everybody in this building is smarter than me, (laughs) and so they do great work.

So, I completely agree with that.

So, speaking of hiring people, I am sure you have business or hiring opportunities for those in our area or outside our area.

Where do they go to find out more information or who can they talk to?

- So, our website, hmeinc.net, there's a careers page there.

It kinda shows you what opportunities are out there and that's where folks can start the application process.

They can even just call the main number and talk to someone.

But as far as career opportunities go, we have offices in Denver, Kansas City, Dallas, Manhattan, Kansas, and of course here in Topeka, as well as the manufacturing facilities here in Topeka as well.

So, we're always looking, we're hungry for, you know, good quality people.

What we look for, we don't necessarily look for an experienced welder, we look for someone who's hungry, who wants to learn, who's just determined to propel themself in their career.

So, as far as, for example, welders, we'll train them on the job.

And that goes with kinda every facet of our manufacturing facilities.

- [Val] That's great.

- We also hire engineering.

We have drafters, we have, John mentioned it, project managers, our own IT department, our own maintenance department, our own marketing department.

So, there's a broad range.

- A little bit of everything.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- That's pretty awesome.

So, speaking of HME, like I said, I've learned a whole lot about your business here today and in learning about it to prepare for the show.

What is one thing, for those out there that may not know about HME, what's one thing that you would like to share about your organization?

- I'm gonna say it's culture.

John has done an amazing job setting the baseline of what our culture expectation is.

And, the culture of HME is, we take care of our employees, and that's, you know, through thick and thin.

So, we have visitors come to our plant and that's the one thing they walk away with.

"Wow, your culture here is amazing."

And John's always looking for ways to, like, "How do we make things better for the employees?"

And we created a company that's actually independent of HME.

It's called Six Zero.

It's an investment company that is owned- - [Val] It's tremendous.

- Yeah, it's owned by the employees themselves.

So, any employee of the group can invest into the company and they're part owner of the company.

And the main focus of that company is commercial real estate.

- [Val Uh-huh.

- And we also supply equipment to Haas Crane to help Haas Crane grow at a more rapid rate.

- Wow.

- So, that company's been around for six years now, and it's done well, a lot of growth.

We own a lot of properties in Topeka.

And John's idea was, "At the end of this whole thing, I want HME employees to retire with a good 401k and something else that help make their retirement that much better."

So that's where the Six Zero thing comes into play.

- Well, that is very well said, Rob.

- Retire at 60.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Thank you so much.

I appreciate everything you're doing for our community, the impact of the economy.

It's wonderful to be here with you all, so thank you for joining us today on "Working Capital."

- Thank you for having us.

- Yeah, thank you.

- Thank you.

And I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say I'm truly impressed with the growth of HME Inc.

The opportunities that they have offered with their services, employment, and the economic impact for Kansas has been beyond impressive.

So, thank you both so much for joining me today on "Working Capital."

And that is all for today's show.

I'd like to thank John Haas, president of HME Inc., and Rob Mohan, COO of HME Inc., for being with us on "Working Capital."

As always, you can watch this episode again or previous episodes of "Working Capital" at watch.ktwu.org.

And we'll see you next time.

We thank you so much for watching.

It's all about business and you're watching "Working Capital."

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funding for "Working Capital" is provided by the Friends of KTWU and by the Raymond C. and Marguerite Gibson Foundation.

(upbeat music fades)