Craning toward schools for workforce boost
Don Bates, President, D.C. Bates Equipment Co., Hopedale
It’s been 30 years since Don Bates founded the company that bears his name. D.C. Bates sells, installs, services and rents out truck- and trailer-mounted hydraulic equipment such as overhead cranes and truck-mounted forklifts, with the greatest demand for their products and services coming from contractors and power companies. The company has been based in Hopedale but plans a $4 million, 45,000-square-foot facility in Mendon that will serve as its headquarters, as well as its manufacturing and distribution center. Bates runs the company with his son David, who is treasurer.
You're moving into a new building (scheduled to be built) in Mendon. What's driving that move?
We need a new building in order to increase our efficiency and capacity, and we don’t have all the things in this building that we need, like overhead cranes. Just a better layout to (do) things more efficiently. More parking, the ability to do bigger orders.
What's your value proposition? Is it your location, being somewhat centrally located in Massachusetts?
From this area, it’s easier to get anywhere in New England within the big population areas: two hours to Hartford; Providence is an hour; Portland is a couple of hours. We do a lot on Long Island and (in) New York City. We go all the way to Buffalo for National Grid, which is a good 500-mile trip. We cover all of upstate New York, all of New England (and) do some stuff in Pennsylvania.
What's most critical for you in trying to win more sales over your competitors?
Producing a quality product. Fortunately, we have some good product lines: PALFINGER is our main crane line, the world’s largest manufacturer of that type of knuckleboom crane. We’ve sold over 1,000 here, and I just got an order from National Grid for 20 more.
In the announcement about your company's move, it was mentioned that you're talking with local schools about workforce programs. How well have the schools gotten that message?
We’ve tried to work with (Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School) in Upton. I think that once we can move into the new building and they can come over and see what we have to offer, we’d like to get some internships started with them, because trying to find anybody who wants to be in this business is very difficult. We have some (skilled) guys in the metal fabrication business. I’m not sure how I will replace them (when the time comes), but we’ve got to start somewhere. You can get a guy (who) can weld, but you can’t get a guy (who) can fabricate and weld that knows what he’s doing, can read prints.
What more can the schools do over the next few years to help you accomplish that goal?
We need people who can do electrical wiring. All the stuff now is computer-generated, so you’ve got to have guys who can work with a computer (and) can work with a crane. Most of it is fairly simple computer stuff; most kids can work that stuff. The electrical portion, the welding portion, knowledge of how to do hydraulics … is more complicated.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments