CUSTOMER| A SALUTE TO AN CUSTOMER |
WENDLING QUARRIES, INC.
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Wendling Quarries has a large number of quarry operations throughout eastern Iowa and western Illinois, and is one of the leading crushed limestone, sand and gravel producers in the Midwest. The company also has an asphalt plant, a Ready-Mix concrete plant, and does asphalt recycling, custom crushing and survey work. In addition, Wendling does custom drilling and prospecting for itself, for other companies and for governmental entities. “We’ve diversified a lot over the years,” said Tony Manatt, Owner and General Manager of Wendling Quarries. “And the main reason for continually adding to our list of services is to help us better meet the needs of our customers. If a customer wants us to do
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something for him, you can bet that we’re going to do our best to find a way to accommodate him. We call it a ‘customer-first’ attitude and that’s really been the key to our success.” Top-notch people While it may not be unusual for the head of a company to feel like that, Manatt says the great thing about Wendling is that employees share the attitude. “I really can’t say enough about our employees. It’s definitely a team effort. Everybody’s job is important and one of us doesn’t succeed without the other. Our best estimator looks bad if our oiler doesn’t do his job—but the oiler doesn’t have a job if the estimator’s not performing well. We don’t have a lot of titles or hierarchy here. We try to empower all of our people to be decision-makers and we feel like we have topnotch people at all levels.” About 200 people work at Wendling Quarries. The management team includes Administrative Manager Ron Lehne, Quarry Development Director Marc Whitman, Production Superintendent Steve Yerington, Safety Director Dan Darland, Quality Control Director Dave Schau and Equipment Manager Hollis Emerson. “We work hard, but we also try to have some fun along the way,” said Manatt. “There’s a lot of ribbing back and forth, but when it comes down to it, if somebody needs help, he knows he can count on the guy next to him. There’s a friendship and a dedication to one another that’s an important aspect of why we go to work. Even though we’ve gotten to be a goodsized company, it’s a family atmosphere here and that’s something we certainly never want to lose.” Company history That family atmosphere probably stems from the fact that Wendling is a family-owned business. Tony, a brother and two cousins are second-generation partners in Manatt’s Inc., one of Iowa’s largest general contracting/road building firms, which acquired |
To a lot of people, quarry work involves turning
big rocks into little rocks. That, of course, is not
wrong. But for a company like Wendling Quarries,
Inc., it only tells a small part of the story.
