Editor’s note: The Daily Press will feature a series of articles about local businesses, highlighting their history and what makes them unique. This series will be serialized regularly in the Daily Press.
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ESCANABA — Roland Machinery Company is an authorized distributor of Komatsu and several other brands of heavy equipment manufactured for construction, forestry, mining and other large-scale operations, located at 2600 S. Lincoln Rd. At Escanaba.
Machinery sales and rentals, maintenance and service, and parts sales are all carried out in cooperation with our valued businesses, contractors and individuals.
The current location was built as a business location and is one of 17 Roland stores across five states. Our headquarters are located in Springfield, Illinois. Since its founding in Springfield in 1958 by a man named Earl Roland, Roland Machinery has grown, acquired and absorbed other companies selling and servicing similar equipment.
The company, which started as Bark River Culvert & Equipment, was based at 430 N. Lincoln Road in Escanaba and had several branches in Wisconsin, including Wausau, DeForest, Eau Claire and Franksville. They essentially did the same type of work as Roland and his machinery, said Ed Harris, now Roland’s branch manager and parts and service manager in Escanaba. But 26 years ago, his work began in the Burke River culvert.
In 2003, Roland acquired Bark River Calvert and all outposts were merged. By maintaining all these strategic locations, each branch can continue to serve customers in their respective regions.
Interactions between locations are routine, said Escanaba office manager Darcy Larsen. “We primarily deal with the Wisconsin area, but we also do a lot of Springfield area as well.” she said.
“And we managers meet once a week.” Harris added. “We have videos about what’s going on in all our branches, how the business is going in which areas, the different trainings, where we send our employees to school. We will all discuss it.”
While other companies in similar operations send their employees to training conducted by specific brands, Roland has its own in-house training center that teaches them how to use all the machines they use. I teach people.
“We are the only Wirtgen company in the U.S. that has enough qualified personnel to train our employees.” Harris explained.
Roland handles and services equipment manufactured by Komatsu, Sennebogen, Leeboy, Dusan, Tana, and Wirtgen.
The training has multiple stages and is designed for beginners and experienced technicians. As technology advances and new models are released, new courses are needed to help employees cope with whatever comes their way. Harris said there are multiple training sessions per year.
Operators of equipment requiring maintenance can bring their machines to Roland’s service bays if possible, but failures often occur in the field. Roland has a truck for situations like this. Technicians can complete repairs off-site or shuttle equipment back to base if work needs to be completed from the garage.
Larsen said all areas of the business are active, including sales, rentals, parts and service.
Larsen and Harris report that experienced operators tend to buy new, high-end equipment and trade it in after about three years or 6,000 hours. These used machines are usually purchased by young people who are just starting out.
In addition to Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin, Roland also has offices in Indiana and Missouri.
