From small beginnings come big things. STG Global has recently formed a partnership with the Iowa-based truck body fabrication company New Way Trucks. Both companies share their beginnings as small, family-oriented organisations. And both have a drive to continually improve and innovate their products in line with the notion that the best business practices revolve around friendliness, informality, hard work and honesty.
So let’s take a look at New Way Trucks and find out how their origin story is closely aligned with that of STG Global.
From Small to Big in the Midwest.
The state of Iowa is farming country. Covering an area roughly half the size of Victoria, Iowa possesses some of America’s best farmland. Grain, diarying, sweetcorn and egg production are the cornerstones of Iowa’s agricultural economy, and roughly 90% of the state is classified as farmland.
So in this flatland state of corn, cows and crops, it may surprise you to learn that it is also home to America’s largest manufacturer of garbage collection trucks.
From small to big
New Way Trucks started out in 1971 inside a small, timber-clad barn on the edge of the town of Scranton, a little town on Route 25 northwest Iowa’s state capital, Des Moines. In this barn, with its steeply tiled roof and the words “Scranton MFG CO” written on the outside wall with spray paint, John McLauchlin began repairing farm equipment.
Along with his brother and a friend, John gained a reputation for high quality workmanship, talented innovation and the ability to figure out solutions to almost any problem. It wasn’t long before the trio began designing their own agricultural machinery systems, based on knowledge gained from repairing the faults inherent in existing machinery.
From corn detasseling to feed systems
Scranton MFG’s first invention was a corn detasseling machine. This bit of kit strips the pollen-producing heads from corn plants which is part of the process for hybridising (cross-pollinating) corn plants to produce new varieties. The machines proved so popular and reliable that soon the guys at Scranton MFG CO were able to begin investing in the development of machinery for the handling and feeding of stock.
A new way
After a decade of producing innovative and reliable agricultural equipment, a slump in the rural economy gave the founders of Scranton MFG the opportunity to look to other fields. And that’s where garbage enters the picture. In the mid 1980s, the company purchased the product line of a company called New Way, which produced garbage compactors. Their vision was to take these machines and improve them (after all, improving machines was part of the company’s DNA) and to set up a network of dealers that could sell New Way collection equipment across the USA. And from there, across the world…
Meanwhile, In Australia.
In the early 1990’s, in another shed on another farm, this one in Victoria, Australia, three blokes were also looking for an opportunity to put their can-do Aussie attitude to work. The state was in the grip of a long drought and the three lads were looking for a bit of off-farm income to keep the bank manager at bay.
A bit of a dust-up
The trio noticed that a lot of dust was rising from a big construction site in the nearby town of Mansfield. They approached the foreman and asked if they could use the farm’s water truck to keep the dust down. An hourly rate was agreed and the boys set to work. The old water truck needed a bit of TLC to get it going, but by pulling an overnighter – sustained by a can or two of VB – they were ready to operate by dawn the next day.
From water to waste
That first farm-built water truck led to the formation of STG Global. Over the ensuing 30 years, STG Global set the standard for the design and manufacture of user-friendly, durable and sustainable machinery. From initially producing world-class water tankers and other truck body configurations for the construction, mining and infrastructure industries, STG Global are also now firmly established as industry leaders in garbage collection systems.
And with the advent of FOGO (food organics and garden organics) collection, and the need for new and innovative collection configurations, the company found a perfect partner in New Way Trucks.
Roll Out the ROTO PAC
The latest machine to roll off the New Way Trucks assembly line is the ROTO PAC garbage collection system. The ROTO PAC is designed to accommodate both solid municipal waste and FOGO waste. This is highly beneficial to waste management providers as it removes the need for owning separate fleets for collecting these different types of waste.
The auger augurs well for the future
That’s a terrible pun, we know! But the innovative auger configuration at the heart of the ROTO PAC system is able to move waste into the compaction chamber three times faster than the conventional “pack panel” design. And because the auger system is able to cope with both FOGO waste and standard municipal waste, it removes the need for local bodies and waste management contractors to operate separate vehicles for each waste type.
Midwest innovation comes to Australia
New Way Trucks are now the largest manufacturer of garbage disposal trucks in North America. From its humble beginnings in a barn on the edge of Scranton Iowa, Scranton MFG CO (now a part of the McLaughlan Family Companies organisation) has become a leader in product manufacturing, innovation and marketing.
But the company has retained its small-town values of honesty, hard work and friendliness, along with a willingness to listen, learn and innovate. And these values are shared by STG Global.
Innovation, Quality and Respect.
STG Global’s partnership with New Way trucks will usher in a new era in the efficient and sustainable collection of FOGO and municipal waste in Australia. Both companies share a passion for design innovation, product reliability and the need to be respectful of our client’s needs.
As local authorities move towards more effective collection methods for waste, the ROTO PAC system looks set to revolutionise the way that waste can be collected, managed and processed. And backing this up is the long-standing belief in good, honest, old-fashioned hard work, born in a couple of farm sheds on opposite sides of the world, that are the foundations of both New Way Trucks and STG Global.
