For our team at Jackson Electric, 2016 was a year full of exciting changes, hard work, and accomplishments.
Project Recap
We started out the year busier than usual thanks to an evaporator addition we were wrapping up for Heartland Corn Products. The first part of the year generally is a little slower for us but with HCP investing in their facility, we were more than happy to accommodate and get to work.
Quickly following the evaporator addition, we moved our efforts toward HCP’s new cooling tower project. Keeping four to six men steady on that project meant we needed to enlist the help of our good friend Tim Lipesky from L&S Electric who provided himself and some good guys to assist us.
While much of our manpower was consistently working on the HCP Cooling Tower and other miscellaneous projects out there, we also had crews working to service some of our commercial customers.
Last spring and summer, we worked on fiber upgrade installations for RS Fiber in their main Winthrop and Gaylord offices as well as satellite locations and splice cabinets around the county later in the fall.
Another project we completed was an LED lighting upgrade of the Honl’s Bees Honey House facility right in Winthrop. They have been expanding their facility as well and it’s looking great.
On the ag business side of things, we upgraded a CT cabinet for Twin Pine Farms on one of their hog barn sites as well as powered up solar arrays for Novel Energy Solutions for some good farming clients.
As more opportunities presented themselves last fall, we were able to work at Dairy Farmers of America on several more tank projects. Between DFA and HCP, not to mention the commercial service calls in between projects, we were quite busy last fall.
As the fall progressed, we found ourselves working another large project at HCP on their Combined Heat and Power Building as well as fall shutdowns for maintenance.
Team Recap
With a focus on developing growing business opportunities within our loyal customer base, our President–Dale Jackson decided to make some structural changes and invest in our team.
That’s when we hired James Theis who joined our team last October and has been a great addition. Adding James to the team allowed us to relieve some of Mike Jackson’s time in the field and promote him to Operations Manager last winter; a position previously manned by myself prior to taking over as Operations Manager of JTI Services.
Dan Wersal has been essential as always with his expanding knowledge of industrial instrumentation and control as well as helping mentor our two apprentices–Dylan Jackson and Michael Jackson who will be eligible for their Journeyman’s test later this year.
Loretta Ahlbrecht continues to impress and take on more responsibility as our Office Manager in charge of administration and human resources.
As Mike had put it earlier this year, “things are getting pretty exciting around here.”
Facilities Recap
If you were to drive by our office today and you remembered what it looked like only a year or so ago, you might recognize that our facilities have really improved.
Since we are refocusing and reinvesting in our business, we needed some modifications to our facility to reflect that.
In the last year, we have remodeled the interior of our office, the shop, warehouse, and toolroom. We also put on a cold storage addition to our east warehouse heading out the north side of our lot.
We are happy with the results of the renovations and couldn’t have done it without the help of many contractor friends in the area including; Bussler & Sons Construction, Landscape Concepts, Lafayette Excavating, B&R Plumbing, Les Wenninger, and Al Guggisberg, to name a few.
2016 was a year of good changes and growth in our business that allowed us to reinvest in our team, facilities, and focus. Now more than ever, Jackson Electric as a company is better equipped and more capable to serve our clients for years to come.
Cheers to 2017!
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