Sennebogen Has Cause for Celebration

Jim Westlake, Service Manager points out to Rob Tavenner from ASC the teaching aspects of the “pit” built into the new training area.

Hundreds of equipment dealers, customers and suppliers came together March 11, 2010, at the new head office of Sennebogen LLC in Stanley, N.C., to mark the opening of the company’s new 54,000-square-foot parts and training facility as well as the company’s 10th anniversary.

The new building, with a green and white façade that pays homage to the company’s Green Line machines, is located at 1957 Sennebogen Trail. The town of Stanley recently re-christened the road to recognize the newest major corporate citizen in the area.

Walter McNeil of SC Hondros, the general contractor on the building, says, “This was an owner-influenced project right down to the placement of the building on their 33-acre lot. Constantino Lannes (president of Sennebogen LLC) was hands-on every day. It was great to work with someone that had such a clear vision of what his requirements were.”

Lee Gibson of Cleveland-based Gibson Machinery, one of Sennebogen’s longest-serving dealers, says, “There is no mistaking the level of commitment that Sennebogen has made to serve their customers and their dealers. I have been on many facility tours and, from a parts distributor’s perspective, I am proud to be a part of this organization.”

Arriving guests were greeted by Lannes along with brothers Erich and Walter Sennebogen, managing directors of Sennebogen GmbH, the parent company and manufacturer behind Sennebogen equipment worldwide.

Staff of the new facility conducted small groups of visitors on a personal guided tour of the facility. 

The site’s training facility features a classroom equipped with the state-of-the-art networking and projection technology to take advantage of the latest interactive training methods, according to the company.

To keep the center focused on training, that section of the facility is fully self-contained. Separated from the adjacent parts warehousing operation, the training center has its own parking area, its own entrance, plus a private kitchen facility and dining areas. “We created a distraction-free classroom environment in order to keep everyone focused on the training they came for,” Lannes says.

Jim Westlake Jr., the service manager at Sennebogen LLC, says he appreciates the practical features built into the training center for service technicians. “We know that people in the service departments like to actually put their hands on the equipment,” he says. “That’s why we built an indoor training bay large enough to handle an 870 M material handler (175,000 pounds). But then we added a pit where a whole class of technicians can walk down and look up right under the machine—that was a brilliant idea from Constantino.”

Guests included principals from more of North America’s top-ranked equipment dealers, many accompanied by their senior sales and service staff as well as a large group of customers. Customers from the nation’s leading scrap and recycling operations, port terminals, waste facilities and forestry yards also made the trip.

The event concluded with speeches and presentations by both of the day’s hosts. Erich told the group, “I will continue to uphold our family’s philosophy and keep reinvesting in our American growth strategies combining product development and safety for our collective futures.”

Lannes underscored the promise, saying, “…as today’s market leader, we are committed to hold on to the position that we have earned together. We will continue to support our dealers and their customers as they expect to be supported by the market leader.”