Picture courtesy of Kuhn Apparatus
Mike Schulz (L), proprietor and president, and Mike Bernard, vp, either one of Kuhn Apparatus.
As Kuhn Apparatus marks its fiftieth anniversary in 2024 as a provider of used recycling, demolition and development machines, it’s value noting that the corporate strategically advanced to seek out its absolute best area of interest throughout the market.
Certainly, for greater than part of its lifestyles, the Summerville, S.C., dealership, situated simply out of doors Charleston, used to be virtually strictly a industry aimed at promoting used earthmoving apparatus corresponding to scrapers and motor graders, in step with Mike Schulz, Kuhn Apparatus’s present proprietor and president.
Corporate founder Dallas Kuhn, Schulz’s stepfather, first established the corporate from his house in Marietta, Ga., in 1974.
Picture courtesy of Kuhn Apparatus
Following his commencement from Texas A&M College, Kuhn targeting turning into skilled within the industry. His first prevent used to be Peoria, Sick., the place he took a role within the business advertising and marketing division at Caterpillar’s company headquarters, a place that entailed running without delay with Cat’s motorized scraper department.
“He in the end left Cat company and went to paintings at a dealership in Kansas Town as a used apparatus man,” stated Schulz. “From there, he made his means right down to Atlanta the place he labored for Semac Development Apparatus, some of the first really impartial used apparatus vendors to start out in that town. He received numerous enjoy down there and made excellent contacts, which led him to open his personal corporate in Kuhn Apparatus.”
Dallas Kuhn labored out of his house for the primary part of Kuhn Apparatus’s lifestyles — first in Georgia, after which within the early ’90s in Charleston. Schulz, who has labored on the corporate since 1995, used to be Kuhn’s first worker.
In 2001, Kuhn constructed a brand new facility in Summerville to enlarge into the Charleston apartment marketplace.
Now, Schulz runs Kuhn Apparatus’s daily operations with a particular center of attention on apparatus procurement and gross sales, whilst his industry spouse, Mike Bernard, works to enlarge the dealership’s buyer base and supply top-flight apparatus at aggressive costs to its consumers.
“Mike and I paintings effectively in combination,” Schulz stated. “My background is in advertising and marketing and gross sales, whilst Mike, who has an accounting stage, additionally does numerous the gross sales and is the numbers man. He and Amber Driggers take care of that aspect of the industry.”
Kuhn Apparatus sells to consumers national, whilst its provider technicians serve the 2 Carolinas and Georgia.
“Companies from around the nation robotically come to Kuhn’s backyard in South Carolina to buy apparatus,” in step with Schulz. “That comes with other people from as a ways away as Alaska. Consumers have come to remember the fact that we constitute a worth in high quality used apparatus.”
Kuhn Markets Earthmovers, Recycling, Demolition Merchandise
When Kuhn Apparatus moved from Georgia to its Summerville location virtually 23 years in the past, the dealership used to be each wealthy and content material in promoting and renting previously-owned heavy machines, Schulz stated.
Since then, the corporate determined to enlarge into promoting and renting new attachments and used and refurbished recycling and demolition merchandise, as effectively.
Picture courtesy of Kuhn Apparatus
That led Kuhn to discover its choices.
“We have been doing numerous reciprocal industry on the time, which we nonetheless do with a spouse corporate in Germany, and after I would have conferences with them, they’d say, ‘You will have to get into recycling; it’s the long run,'” Schulz stated. “They stated there used to be all the time going to be a necessity and it used to be best going to develop. They stored riding that time house, however I stated, ‘Nah, we adore doing the bulldozers and the motor graders — that apparatus is more or less what we do.'”
As time went on, despite the fact that, he started to appreciate the reality of what his Ecu colleagues have been pronouncing, and that the marketplace used to be not rather as pushed via used earthmovers anymore.
Kuhn then started reworking its industry fashion towards used recycling and demolition apparatus, at the side of new attachment gross sales, in step with Schulz.
“As we noticed there have been legs to the recycling apparatus trade, we began making higher contacts in that industry and creating supply-chain partnerships with dependable corporations that sought after us as colleagues. That smoothed the transition to the place we at the moment are.”
As evidence of its evolution, Kuhn essentially introduced new attachments for recycling and demolition paintings however has since broadened its stock to incorporate used full-size machines like wheel and observe subject material handlers, at the side of high-reach and scrap-processing excavators from makers corresponding to Komatsu, Volvo, John Deere, Kobelco, Cat and Hitachi.
Demolition Contractors Ceaselessly Flip to Kuhn
Lots of Kuhn’s excavators had been used on demolition jobs right through the Southeast over time, amongst them the elimination of an previous Clemson College dormitory to make room for added parking, a difficult demo of a strengthened concrete canal bridge in Port Canaveral, Fla., and the razing of an previous mill construction in Georgia.
Relating to the latter mission, Schulz stated that greater than 15 years in the past, Kuhn provided an ultra-high-reach demolition unit (UHD) to a contractor running to take down a decades-old construction alongside the Savannah River in Augusta, Ga. The five-story construction had served for a few years as a sweet manufacturing unit sooner than plans have been made to totally demolish it to make means for a brand new library on the website online.
“We put one gadget there that did the true excessive attain and dropped particles onto the bottom, at the side of some other within reach to do the end up paintings so far as processing the fabrics,” Schulz stated. “I simply take into account that the entire heavy production apparatus used to be nonetheless in there, supported via 20-inch-thick concrete flooring laced with rebar.”
Consequently, he stated the high-reach excavator required “a beautiful competitive muncher/processor to damage them just because they were not your usual structural flooring.”
The contractor on that task used a Komatsu PC450 UHD with a Genesis Demo Professional attachment. As soon as the fabric used to be at the floor, a Komatsu PC300 supplied with a LaBounty UP50 concrete pulverizer got here in and broke the construction particles into manageable items.
Most sensible Subject material Handlers, Attachments To be had at Kuhn
Amongst Kuhn’s main producers of subject material handlers and new attachments are SENNEBOGEN, Cat, Fuchs and Liebherr, a gaggle which Schulz refers to because the dealership’s “giant 4” manufacturers.
“We’re heavy into subject material handlers for sorting and processing most commonly metals, but additionally paper and plastics,” he stated. “You’ll be able to destroy it down into two spaces: one, the fabric handler itself, which is used for waste and scrap sorting into other piles; and two, placing a scrap shooter at the growth of the excavator to be used in processing the fabrics. To promote that subject material to the mill and get probably the most cash, corporations will have to first procedure it to a length. The way in which to try this is to chop it up with giant hydraulic shears at the finish of the growth.”
Picture courtesy of Kuhn Apparatus
Different attachment traces to be had thru Kuhn come with Genesis, a key manufacturer of shears and buckets for demolition excavators made via the well known OEMs; and LEFORT, a Belgian maker of scrap steel recycling apparatus, together with balers, shears and shredders.
“We’re the unique LEFORT desk bound shear broker for Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, that means we duvet this territory for gross sales, doing supply setups, commissioning, and after gross sales portions and repair reinforce,” Schulz stated. “We have now a gross sales affiliate who’s our LEFORT consultant and is primarily based within the Greenville, S.C., subject.
“LEFORT’s shears paintings very merely,” he added. “A recycling corporate will take all its scrap and throw it into what seems like a large, open-top container that has massive blades inside of that cut up the fabric to supply a product that may be offered to a mill.”
Schulz is happy with Kuhn Apparatus’s top-notch portions division, which, he stated, can briefly supply elements from maximum main apparatus producers. The dealership’s massive in-house stock of commonplace attachments could also be prized via its consumers.
“We have now a robust store with six provider bays the place we do attachment rebuilds, generator set installations, shear bundle conversions and installed OilQuick coupler programs,” he stated, whilst including that Kuhn additionally runs two out of doors provider vehicles.
Over time, the corporate’s provider heart for apparatus and attachments has grown to grow to be an very talked-about function amongst each its consumers and gadget providers.
For example, Kuhn serves as a certified provider supplier for SENNEBOGEN’s line of cell and desk bound subject material handlers; its mechanics have been skilled via SENNEBOGEN, as effectively — two info that Schulz stated complements the dealership’s recognition and status on the market.
“Moreover, we’re a certified Genesis rebuild heart,” he added. “We promote factory-fresh attachments, and our store is supplied to totally refurbish maximum manufacturers of attachments — particularly shears and demolition processors.”
For example of the rebuild heart’s paintings, Schulz stated, “We will be able to take a grapple and reseal it, relying at the degree of gadget that the contractor is the use of. Kuhn all the time has new grapples in inventory, however from time to time other people do not need to spend $35,000, opting for as a substitute to move with one this is used — however no longer used up — and pay part the price of a brand new attachment. We attempt to be offering choices for everybody and each and every funds, in all fairness.”
Picture courtesy of Kuhn Apparatus
Neither Genesis nor LEFORT do a lot of their very own provider paintings within the Georgia-Carolinas area. Consequently, their consumers are incessantly referred to Kuhn for maintenance. Throughout the dealership’s store facility, its technicians can handle and connect high-wear shear attachments that slice thru steel however can grow to be boring because of abrasiveness.
“When they’re introduced in to us, now we have were given other people which might be skilled via Genesis to revive the shears again to a brand new situation,” stated Schulz. “In addition they do welding buildup, reseal the hydraulic elements, and put them again in frontline situation. We do the similar with LEFORT and honor its warranties in our territory.”
He believes that the endorsement of Kuhn’s provider heart via well-regarded producers like SENNEBOGEN, Genesis, LEFORT and others is essential to attracting contractors and consumers to the Charleston-area corporate.
“It surely complements our recognition and our status available in the market. Plus, I want to suppose that they know that the Kuhn provider heart offers them well timed provider and paintings executed proper, that are our targets.” CEG
Eric Olson
A creator and contributing editor for CEG since 2008, Eric Olson has labored within the industry for greater than 40 years.
Olson grew up within the small the town of Lenoir, NC within the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the place he started overlaying sports activities for the native newspaper at age 18. He endured to try this for a number of different dailies within the subject whilst in school at Appalachian State College. Following his commencement, he moved on to achieve enjoy at two different publications sooner than turning into an actual property and particular options creator and editor on the Winston-Salem Magazine for 10 years. Since 1999 he has labored as a company media liaison and freelance creator, along with his time at CEG.
He and his spouse, Tara, had been married for 33 years and are the oldsters of 2 grown and a success daughters. His spare time activities come with gathering historical past books, observing his cherished Inexperienced Bay Packers and taking good care of his 3 canines and one cat.
