Greetings customers,
There is a lot of exciting change taking place at Fol-Da-Tank that we would like to share with you and your teams.
As you are most likely aware Fol-Da-Tank was acquired in November of 2020 and Joel Wright, a co-owner, took the helm as President. Joel’s partner is Tom Bernau who runs Bernau Capital Partners in Des Moines.
Joel immediately launched key initiatives to enhance the organization, including rebranding and development of a new website, onboarding an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system to electronically manage standard operating procedures across the organization, and building a strong leadership team with diverse manufacturing backgrounds and product knowledge.
The rebranding initiative has gone very well, and we are extremely enthusiastic about our new website went live in July of 2021. The new website includes visibility of our standard product offerings, but we have removed some content so customers can access the information they need quickly, rather than sorting through options that are not commonly utilized in the industry. For “Quick Assemble” and custom tank and tarp sizes we’re asking our customers to contact us via email (info@fol-da-tank.com) or phone (1-800-637-8265) to make sure we understand our customer(s’) need(s) and offer our customer(s) the best option(s) for their need(s). We have also enhanced our logo and tank labels, and you will be seeing our enhanced branding on the tanks you purchase starting in July, coinciding with the re-launch of our website.
We went “live” with our ERP system in June, and the launch went seamlessly thanks to a lot of effort from our team pre-launch. As we continue to onboard different modules, automation and fluid communication across the organization will increase, which has had an inverse effect on lead times. Currently our average lead time is less than 19 days and is headed to less than 15 days.
Since the start of 2021, we have successfully recruited and hired manufacturing and product knowledge experts. Keith Niebur was hired as our Operations Manager in early March. Keith has been a manufacturing and management leader for over 18 years, and his background is supplying tier one OEMs with stringent quality, cost management, and delivery expectations. Daily he oversees operations, assuring bottlenecks and quality concerns are resolved promptly to ensure on-time delivery. From an operational growth perspective, he leads continuous improvement projects, including workflow optimization and manufacturing process improvement. Nathan Tindall also joined the team in March as the Assistant Operations Manager. Nathan has a similar background compared to Keith; he too comes from a manufacturing environment that primarily serviced tier one OEMs. Nathan has been in the manufacturing sector for over 17 years, and his background includes purchasing, estimating, project management, and engineering/product design, all of which he now oversees, or is involved in, at Fol-Da-Tank. In April, Josh Genz joined our team as our Sales Manager. Josh is an expert using the tools we manufacture; he has been a firefighter for over 18 years. Josh understands the challenges our customers face first-hand, and he can offer solutions to overcome the challenges based on real-life experiences.
Amidst all the change at Fol-Da-Tank, a lot has stayed the same. We remain the industry leader and the originator of portable water tanks while continuing to offer our best-in-class accessories and quick assemble products.
At Fol-Da-Tank we view our customers as partners, and our customer promise is that we will remain focused on cost management, quality assurance, innovation, and on-time delivery. Moving forward we are confident you will find the investments we are making now, in people and process improvements, support our promise to our customers and we are fully committed to being the first choice of first responders.
Thank you for your patronage, we are looking forward to a bright, successful, future with you and your teams.
The Fol-Da-Tank Team