B&W GOES THE EXTRA MILE

HUMBOLDT — B&W Trailer Hitches employees are “very blessed, as is the whole community,” said Sally Manbeck, corporate administrator.
The Humboldt industry, which has grown to a sprawling factory and 280 employees, will celebrate its 25th anniversary with an outing for employees Saturday.
Owners Joe and Jane Works will take 721 employees and family members to Worlds and Oceans of Fun in Kansas City, and include a down-home fried chicken dinner.
“We have two charter buses going,” with many employees driving themselves, said Manbeck in the absence of Joe Works, tied up Wednesday with business commitments.
Of its 280 employees, 168 will participate in the celebratory day of fun.
“The dance recital (Cooper Studio Dance Center’s extravaganza at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center), weddings and other things will keep some employees from going,” Manbeck observed.
B&W, with sales soaring, has offered overtime work many Saturdays this year, but production was put on hold for the KC trip.
“This is our second trip to Worlds of Fun,” Manbeck noted. “Two years ago when we sold our millionth gooseneck hitch, we took about 600 there to celebrate.”
Such events are not unique for the company.
Eight years ago, when employment was 140, Works began having monthly dinners for employees, with him and managers doing the grilling. A shrimp boil has been a July tradition and ribeye steaks are the fare at Christmastime.
“The first years of the monthly dinners went pretty easily, but now they’re quite a production,” said Manbeck, in charge of their organization.
When the recession struck, Works doubled down. He purchased Poli-Tron, a Pittsburg company that made agricultural equipment, such as bunk, bale and mineral feeders, bale spikes and gates and panels. He added production to keep employees occupied.
When that wasn’t enough, he dispatched teams of employees to work on community projects throughout Humboldt — a new ballpark in Sweatt Park is an example — as well as to help with repair of Allen County Fair facilities in Iola’s Riverside Park after the flood of 2007.
Teams of three employees each also helped employees around their homes doing roof repairs, fence construction, siding, whatever was needed.
When the recession persisted, Works enrolled in the state’s work-share program, which enabled employees to work part-time and draw unemployment compensation for days not on the job. He went a step further: He made up the difference between hourly wages and unemployment to ensure that each employee took home a full paycheck.
Helping out with community interest projects wasn’t shelved when the economy perked up.
B&W crews and equipment helped with clearing and preparation of the Southwind Rail Trail for surfacing and had a prominent hand in developing Neosho River Park. Both will be dedicated Saturday.
USD 258’s new $2 million sports complex is on about 50 acres the Workses donated to the school district, a tract large enough to someday also accommodate new schools.
Testimony to Works’ compassionate style is that seven of the first 10 people hired by B&W are still employed; an eighth retired.

B&W’S NAME comes from when Works and Roger Baker, who worked as a welder and painter at a local industry, founded the company in 1987 in a garage, starting as B&W Custom Truck Beds.
They soon invented the Turnoverball Gooseneck Hitch, which continues to be a flagship product, and hired their first employee in 1993. A year later they moved to a building in Humboldt’s industrial park.
Several expansions and improvements have occurred since to accommodate a broader array of products. The company also uses robots to ferry parts among productions lines. Computer-guided lasers — seven of them — cut components for many of the company’s products. A long conveyor belt carries completed products through a series of machines that powder-paint and cure the final finish.
Manbeck said B&W long has maximized its high-tech manufacturing processes with thorough training of employees, spending more than $500,000 the last 15 years on their education.
Also, “We’re proud that all our products are made in the U.S.A.,” she said.
The company is continually looking for new products to market throughout North America and abroad.
B&W holds 19 U.S. patents, three international patents and has four patents pending. It also is home of two inventions for manufacturing processes and has two registered trademarks and copyrights.
Recognitions for production and philanthropy have flowed to B&W, including being singled out several times as a vendor and manufacturer of the year, being named industry of the year by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and receiving awards, such as Thrive Allen County’s Donna Talkington Award and Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City’s Healthy Allen Award.
The company received national television exposure through NBC’s “Random Acts of Kindness,” for community projects Works encouraged during the height of the recession.
More recently, B&W has been nominated for a statewide award that will be given by the Kansas Department of Commerce.

THE COMPANY’S generosity and familial attitude toward employees goes beyond the workplace.
Each employee and family members are eligible for company paid health insurance, which includes free-of-charge visits to a medical clinic on the company’s campus. Nurse practitioners from Iola’s The Family Physicians are at the clinic four hours each Monday and Wednesday.
In 2006, B&W constructed and opened a child care center and preschool, available to employees’ children as well as area residents. Since 2007 employees have had opportunity for be involved with B&W in a company funded stock-ownership program.
This summer, 10 of the company’s employees are college students.