“We may not have a degree in chemistry or physics hanging on our walls,” Hise says. “But every day, our salespeople are chemists, physicists, and engineers — understanding the unique aspects of our customer’s application and designing the ideal components to tackle that challenge. That’s what sets us apart.”

Expanding to other areas

The experience of understanding elements and physics properties led Cemco to another venture. How could they leverage their crushing science to positively impact other industries?

As the company grew, so did its pool of experts in mining, engineering, fabricating, machining, aggregate production, power and energy production, agriculture, and contract manufacturing. The extended Cemco expertise enables the company to meet challenges head-on with the same ingenuity and sweat equity on which the company was founded. The desire to solve problems and find a better way of doing things lives on.

“There is something I learned early on,” Hise says. “One person can’t grow a company. One family can’t grow a company. Employees are the most valuable asset we have, and many of our employees have worked with us for years, from generation to generation. It’s their expertise and dedication that allows us to grow the company.”

In the mining industry, Cemco crushers now take on steel slags, gold, and copper. Each customer’s specific refining process for product gradation is met with the exactness that comes from a custom manufacturer. The third largest gold mine in the world in Muruntau, Uzbekistan knows what that means. For more than 17 years, Cemco crushers have been at work 24/7 at the mine processing 1.3 million tons per month. It’s a vastly different world than when Mason began working in gold mines as a teenager, but his vision helped shape the industry of today.

While mining may have been a natural transition for the company, some new markets have ventured significantly away from tradition. About 20 years ago, Cemco delved into recycling, offering the innovative solutions for crushing cement, glass, ceramic tile, drywall, brick, roofing tiles, copper slag, and steel slag. All the while, Cemco’s focus remained the same: keeping operating costs minimal with low-maintenance, low-energy options. Today, that experience extends directly to small machines tailored to restaurants and bars.

Cemco’s list of experience and market solutions extends to agriculture and transforming unusable coal and uranium into usable resources as well. Their accomplishments also include innovative custom manufacturing for the oil and gas industries. Overall, Cemco remains a leader in the aggregate industry, which it has served with dedication for most of its 50 years.

In 1980, Neil took over as president of Cemco, but Mason remained very active in the business until his passing in 1993. Today, Neil continues to serve as the company’s president. It continues to be a family business with his wife, Ty Juana, and daughter, Jennifer, both owners in the company. Ty Juana joined the business fulltime in 1986 as the CFO and has served as CEO for the past five years. Jennifer, who first visited the shop as a baby, now serves as vice president. Through high school, she ran forklifts and helped on sales trips — completely involved with the family business. In college, she earned a degree as a mining engineer and, at age 25, became the first female plant manager of a sand and gravel dredging operation for TXI Red River. A decade ago, she brought her knowledge and experience back to the business her grandfather founded. Neil’s other daughter, Aneile, holds an equally important role.

“She is raising the fourth generation of the Hise family,” Hise says. “Hopefully, one day they, too, will join Cemco.”

The business that Mason started 50 years ago now includes much more than his son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter. The Cemco team has grown to include others who are as much family as those who descended from Mason. A quarter of all Cemco employees have been on the staff for more than a decade. The teamwork and dedication shows in the quality of work.

Through it all, Mason’s advice keeps the company on track and devoted to the work ethic he established 50 years ago as he roamed the Southwest doing repairs. “The most important thing is remembering that you’re only as good as your word,” he would say. If somebody made a promise to a customer, they had better keep it. “Tell them the truth, and do what you say,” he reminded his family. That message continues to be lived now by the extended Cemco family as it works to address new problems with the same well-thought and planned solutions that developed a generation ago under the stars. 

This article is courtesy of Cemco.