In recent years, the materials handling business has generally been steadier than other industries. Companies always seem to have a need to get their goods and materials moved and have them arrive on schedule—and MH distributors have been able to profit.

Just the same, materials handling providers can still be at the mercy of how their customers' businesses are doing. Fortunately for Riekes Equipment Co., business has remained strong over the past year or so, explains sales manager Bill Herek.

“We don't see that changing in the second half of the year, either,” Herek says. “It's been on a growth mode for the past several years, actually. There's been expansion and a lot of new companies coming to this part of the country.”

Riekes (“RY-kus”) is headquartered in Omaha, and has three other locations in North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa, along with three resident mechanics that are on call at locations other than the branches.

Riekes offers a full line of materials handling equipment, with Yale Lift Trucks being among the manufacturers the company represents. But it also sells items needed to run conveyors, Herek adds. Its fleet management business is strong these days as well. The company has not had to worry about getting too reliant on one single customer, or even one specific industry, to sustain growth, Herek explains.

“And in this part of the country there are a lot of food-related industries,” he says. “You still have a pretty good packing house industry, too, and that helps a lot.”

Herek has worked in materials handling since 1963 and has seen a number of examples of the enormous influence brought by technology, especially in recent years.

“Anything in the internal combustion or engine side of things,” he says, citing one category. “We used to use DC [powered] motors with contactors. Now those motors are AC. There is also a lot of technology used now in order to troubleshoot and adjust transmissions and hydraulics. A lot of those are all electronics today.”

To keep up with the latest innovations, this technology demands constant training, he explains, both for the mechanics but also for his sales staff.

“So it's a concern getting and holding on to people in this industry,” he says, speaking as a sales manager. “In sales, I think you have to give yourself five or six years to get settled into a territory to the point where you're comfortable and people are comfortable with you.”

He likes what all the technology can do for him and his company but cautions others not to get too swayed or distracted by it. For all the technological advances and all the steady business of the past few years, Herek emphasizes one characteristic that has not changed for him or his company.

“Remember that you have people dealing with people,” Herek says. “As simplistic as that is, you have to keep it down to the people-to-people level. That has to be the main focus point. You have to know your product and people have to trust in what you're telling them. And stand behind what you do. Nothing else works.”