Rollforming Magazine visited Rush River Steel, a roll-forming shop in Henderson, Minnesota, in mid-May for a tour. Prior to going into the industry over 8 years ago, the community-based owners depended on the livestock industry and a metal fabrication shop as primary income. Manager Jacob Wollman shared some observations about transitioning to the business of roll forming.
A Roll Former’s Life
“Our community has a saying that livestock is a ‘lebenigs ample,’ a job that’s alive,” Wollman said. “When you go down to the hog barn, where you have livestock, it’s a job that’s alive, you cannot skip it, it’s constantly calling for you. You can’t just put down your work and leave.
The Tuff-Rib is the company’s most popular panel and accounts for about 70% of sales. Rush River Steel photo
”The roll-forming business is similar, he noted, “with phone calls coming in, customers at your door, constantly advertising, it’s definitely a responsibility that you’ve got to feed, otherwise it will die. You gotta be here on the phones, you have to get these orders out, your customers are waiting for you. Roll forming has been a great, clean business for us, but like everything, it requires long hours and a lot of hard work.”
Advice on Growing a Business
Wollman said Rush River’s business philosophy is fairly simple: “Buy fair, sell fair. Pay your bills. Use or invest. Repeat. Everyone’s happy!”
On Shop Life The metal fabrication business Wollman’s community previously relied on was often dirty work; by contrast, roll forming is very clean.
“If you visit our shop, you will immediately see the clean environment in our work area, and pleasant workplace. This is due not only to a responsible and caring team, but roll forming is a clean environment in comparison to a metal fab shop, where you have grinders, welders, laser cutters, and other things going on,” he said.
On Maintenance
“Roll formers usually don’t break down. They’re really not very high maintenance if you know what you’re doing. If you make stupid mistakes, (and they usually end up being stupid ones), yeah, you can break machines, you can crash dies [four layers of steel feeding through the machine at one time, damaging the chrome finish].” Wollman encouraged business owners to utilize their machine manufacturer’s technical advisors to the fullest. “They encourage us that there’s no stupid question, just call. Cameron Wollman is our roll-former technician and he’s on the phone a lot with them. He has no problems calling, he’s become good friends with them.”
LEARN MORE ABOUT RUSH RIVER STEEL HERE