ILMA Compoundings - August 2020 - 28

"Our lubricants are going into big, expensive
pieces of equipment. Companies want to be as
by-the-book as they can be in terms of having
their maintenance program up to snuff."

"This is very expensive equipment," he added. "No one is
going to want to do that. But if the equipment's not under
warranty anymore, then the maintenance team can get a
little more creative about sources and types of grease they
can use. That's important, because sometimes there may be
better options than what the OEM originally specified,"
including products that are less expensive, better engineered
or better suited to a specific application.
Most manufacturers across the country are capable of
supplying the same high-quality, high-performance lubricants
and greases to these industries. What distinguishes one supplier
from another in the marketplace is commitment to service.

Jake Neubauer, technical director at Champion Brands, said,
"Customers expect you to deliver - sometimes to the job site,
sometimes to their shop - on short notice. They also want
help understanding the technical aspects of the products. Our
lubricants are going into big, expensive pieces of equipment.
Companies want to be as by-the-book as they can be in terms
of having their maintenance program up to snuff."
In addition, many companies expect both delivery
flexibility and inventory rationalization. "The fewer oils you
have to deliver to the job site the better," Neubauer said, "so
companies are always looking for flexibility in that regard.
For instance, a lot of the equipment may use an SAE 30
TO-4 powershift fluid for the transmission and then a 10W
TO-4 powershift fluid for the hydraulics. We try to offer
multigrade products, like a TO-4M product, so that, if
they're in the field, they can use it in their transmissions or
in their hydraulic systems."
That approach highlights the value of suppliers who are
nimble enough to think and act like true partners. "When
you work to provide a solution to a construction company
or a heavy-duty company or a mining company, that's when
you differentiate yourself in the market," Perkins said. "If a
piece of equipment goes down - even if it only goes down
for 45 minutes, long enough to replace two bearings that
locked up because of improper grease - that time could
equate to thousands of dollars' worth of lost productivity.
Less downtime means more profitability.
"So, we work closely with the reliability engineers or
the different maintenance departments, reviewing trends
[regarding] bearing failures or control-head failures or
hydraulic-system failures," he added. "We work with our
additive companies [on] customized formulations to help
these companies make their machinery last longer or run
cooler. When you start doing that, the sales start rolling
in because customers start trusting you. They begin to
understand that we're here to help. It becomes a partnership
instead of a sales transaction."

BUILDING A SERVICE BUSINESS

MANAGING IN A TIME OF CRISIS

Jake Neubauer, technical director, Champion Brands

For Robert Perkins, president of PennStar Oil, the secret to
serving these industries effectively is simple: Help customers
operate more efficiently. Of course, that might mean you
have to work hard to be competitive on price. "But a lot
of times it's also about our dedicated customer service," he
said. "Sometimes, it's the customer knowing they can call us
anytime because one of their machines malfunctioned and
that we will get them the hydraulic fluid they need, at their
job site, next day. That level of responsiveness sets us apart."
While every industry values a commitment to service and
responsiveness from its suppliers, the stakes for construction
and mining customers are even higher.

AUGUST 2020

| COMPOUNDINGS | ILMA.ORG

Those partnerships were tested, to varying degrees, in
the wake of this year's global response to the COVID-19
pandemic.
Neubauer reported that construction did not take as
much of a hit as other segments of the business at Champion Brands. "There was a little bit of a lull, but I think
things have more or less returned to normal in that segment
for us," he said. "I continued to see construction going
on throughout the entire pandemic and the government
response to it."
At Daubert Chemical, its approach to the mining
industry is global rather than regional. McGinnis believes

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ILMA Compoundings - August 2020

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