My Biz: Eastern Iowan continues family tradition with Hawkeye Material Handling

HIAWATHA - Hawkeye Material Handling has been providing turnkey material handling and storage solutions for businesses, warehouses and distribution centers since 1982, when company founder Dennis Trachta opened the business from his home in Cedar Rapids.

Today, Trachta's son, Doug, serves as vice president and general manager for the company, which operates out of a new facility in Hiawatha.

Whether it's pallet racking, rolling ladders, workbenches or chains and lighting, the company offers solutions for efficiency, organization and safety to a client base that spans all 50 states.

The senior Trachta was doing sales work for Storage Systems in Cedar Rapids in 1974. When the company went bankrupt, he decided to fill the void by opening Hawkeye Material Handling. 'A lot of those customers stayed with him and are still with us today,” Doug Trachta said.

The company's client list includes General Mills, Procter & Gamble, Quaker Oats, Amana/Whirlpool and Deere & Co.

'We handle all of North America for John Deere,” Trachta said. 'Companies like John Deere and Amana have a lot of products to store.”

Services includes on-site consultation and evaluation, engineered design and custom fabrication, as well as modifications, installation, disassembly, demolition, repair and maintenance.

The company employs 11 people, 'and everyone just does what needs to be done,” Trachta said.

Trachta began working for his father's company while in high school. He graduated from the University of Iowa in May 1990, and one week later became a full-time employee.

He was responsible for pioneering Hawkeye Material Handling's Internet presence in the early 1990s, and he designed the company's computerized sales/tracking and purchasing system that it still uses today.

'When you have 20 years to tweak it, it gets pretty solid,” he said. 'It is a big bonus for us, because we have a complete history of our orders for the last 21 years.”

Diversification is a key element to the company's success, Trachta said, including its 2010 purchase of Horizon Products.

'We absorbed them into our offerings that include chains, wire ropes, fittings - things like that,” he said, 'so now we can sell to the city, fire departments and construction companies. It has increased our walk-in business, where before we were mostly behind-the-scenes.”

At a glance:

l Name: Doug Trachta

l Title: Vice president and general manager

l Business: Hawkeye Material Handling

l Address: 1723 Hawkeye Dr., Hiawatha

l Phone: (319) 395-9784

l Website: www.hawkmat.com