Kennedy Brothers
===

Joe: [00:00:00] Let's see. Well, 

Bill: happy birthday. Ah, thanks. Yeah. You guys like 33? Three? No, 34. 34. 34. 34. Yep. I 

Vince: remembered 34 a long time ago. 

Joe: Longer than me. Yep. Right. Speaking of selling than Reese, I was, when I came into scouts, I had to sell. For two, because as the little younger brother, yeah, right. That was sort of the, oh, you go, so the reason I'll go deliver 'em.

Well, it's just total BS because all you would do is drive around and then make me get outta the car and run 'em up and sch slip in people's doors, which back then was like, you call that delegation . Yeah. Back then pre, you know, digital currency, you had to collect checks or collect cash. Now everything's Venmo, which is fantastic.

So by the time we go and deliver the Reese, 98% of them have already been paid for which, right. It's made as a parent, when you have to like front the money Oh my gosh. 

Bill: Makes life a lot better. So we're selling Girl Scout reefs for my, I mean, uh, girl Scout cookies for my daughter. Yeah. And you know, , it's hard to collect everything and I can't imagine how much money our dad would lose and mom would lose every year on wreaths selling 133 [00:01:00] times three and just, you know, the last 70 we would say we sold em.

But just try to find people after you got em to take em in and, right. I'm sure he's losing quite a bit every year on it. Went to the sales team and said, 

Vince: Hey guys, uh, Here's a bunch of 

Bill: res, give these out to customers, right? Oh yeah. Our Kennedy tank on our property, we'd have 30 wreaths hung everywhere.

Every door had a wreath on it, that's for sure. Holy Kennedy. Sure is. Festive. Yeah. 

Jim: And it's, it's funny, we, um, Talk about selling Christmas Reese all the time, but this is the first time in probably 10 years I even put any thought towards delivering the Reese. Cuz that was a hell of a Oh yeah. That was an unbelievable experience.

Right? Cuz you had to get the checks. But also just putting that many Reese in the back of a pickup truck and trying to figure out which ones go to who 

Bill: was right. I mean that was like a three weekend process. 

Vince: Yeah. So fast forward 10 to 15 years, will drones be delivering 

Bill: the lease then? I hope if any of my, if my boys and uh, boy Scouts, I hope that's the 

Vince: truth.

that'd be funny.[00:02:00] 

Hey guys. Welcome back to their episode of the Industrious Podcast. Thank you for joining us from wherever you get your podcast, or if you're joining us on theesa YouTube channel. Thank you for doing so. Um, if you haven't subscribed on there, please do so. It's free of charge. Really appreciate it. Today, we've got double your pleasure with the Kennedy Twin Boys Bill and Jim Kennedy, welcome to the Industrious Podcast.

Thank you. Thank you. 

Bill: Thanks for having us, and happy birthday. Thank you. 

Vince: Thank you. I wish I, I already knew that that was kind of well planned. I would've had something else [00:03:00] for them, but next time, um, we'll let you guys fight over who gets to do the, the cool introduction. But why don't you guys give us a little background your.

Bill: Great. Well, I'm, uh, bill Kennedy and, uh, president of Kennedy Tank. I'm married to my wife Ellen. We started dating at Bishops Schardt High School back in, let's see, 2000, uh, five. And I've been married eight, eight years. Have four young kids, a second grader at, IM a kindergartner, then a five, five-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl.

And, uh, um, belong to Highland Play Golf at Highland and. also, uh, big members of Ichi m and the Sheard communities, but we work at Kennedy Tank. I'm the president of our, uh, fifth generation family owned business. Uh, we have about 225 employees, three different locations, and, uh, business has been really good to us the past couple of.

And I'll hand it over to my twin brother, Jimmy. [00:04:00] 

Jim: Yep. And I'm Jim Kennedy. It's great to be on the podcast. Um, I went to iu. I am the Vice President of Sales at Kennedy Tank. I've been at Kennedy Tank about five years. Um, really lucky to be on the team and we do have a, a cool history that we'll discuss today.

Um, I am married, uh, to my wife, Anna Grace Kennedy. And. A son, Patrick Kennedy, who's 17 months in three days. 

Bill: Nice. So yeah, 

Jim: through diehard IU fan, especially IU basketball and uh, hoping for a stronger finish to the year than the start has been. But thanks. This is true. Thanks for having us on. The defense helps.

Yeah. I mean, playing Wisconsin game is good. Defense is much better. . Yep. 

Joe: Yeah, I had, I saw someone, um, describe Wisconsin basketball as, hopefully there's offending listeners here, but they refer to Wisconsin brand of basketball as dry humping . I was like, you know, that's, I never would've thought about that, but if you think about it, that's dead true.

Yeah. Because it's the most boring [00:05:00] version of basketball ever to watch and for IU to finally beat them, cuz it seems like it's. Right. You know, a hundred years, you know, with a legitimate score like a legitimate beatdown was kind of nice to see. So 

Bill: Jimmy and I have season tickets, uh, 10th row behind the bucket, four together, and I told my wife at the start of this season, no matter what we have on the calendar, I am going to the IU Wisconsin game because personally, We, I have lost the last nine IU Wisconsin games that I've attended, so it's good to finally win one, one for nine.

Now. Agreed. , 

Vince: I almost wasn't going to go because the way we've played the last couple games is like, I'm, I'm done. Right? And Maddie, who was home from Tennessee was like, I really wanna go to that game. Like, all right, fine, let's go. And I'm glad we 

Bill: did. Yeah. . That was a hell of a second half. 

Joe: Yeah. I would like to personally reach out and thank Maddie for sending, uh, Tevon Jackson.

Yes. From Tennessee to iu. Yes. Yes, 

Jim: that's true. She 

Bill: goes to Tennessee. She's of all she is. Yeah. 

Vince: She was not real happy when that news broke. Um, 

Joe: but do you think that she could send a left tackle, a left guard a right tackle, [00:06:00] right guard, maybe a sent, 

Vince: yeah, that was my one response to that tweet. I think Tom Allen put, I was like, now can we protect him, please?

Right. That'd be. . Absolutely. So we'll see what happens. Well, cool. Um, what can you guys tell us about Kennedy Tank? The average listener may not be familiar with you guys, you want to kind of provide some history on what you guys 

Bill: do? Yeah, absolutely. So we're a fifth generation, uh, family-owned business and we fabricate steel tanks, uh, shell and toed exchangers, ASME pressure vessels, and we have a field arm that erects large, uh, field erected tanks at our customer sites.

And our great-great-grandfather started the business in 1898. We have two other locations. Great-grandfather started, uh, Southern Tank in Owensboro, Kentucky. Uh, that's still operated and owned by the Kennedy family and operated by great people down there, about 40 people at that business. And our grandpa started Staco Steel Tank and Fabricating Corp, which uh, is a steel tank fabricating business in Columbia City, Indiana with about 25 [00:07:00] employees.

And we mostly. Uh, or weld and fabricate, uh, tanks, vessels, shen toed exchangers for the chemical and petrochemical industry. And like I said earlier, we have about 225 employees. When you consider all three businesses and the field arm of Kennedy Tank, right, do you still operate all three 

Vince: like. Completely independently, or are they kind of under the same 

Bill: umbrella or they're under the same umbrella but operated independently?

We have really veteran and great employees at all three sites. And yeah, we always say they're more capable of, you know, choosing the right answers than we would be trying to micromanage from indie. Sure. 

Vince: Um, fifth generation is not easy. I mean, there's not that many businesses out there that survive that long or make it that long for any number of different reasons.

what would you guys say has kind of been the secret sauce to, for that to continue to go? 

Bill: Correct. So we're entering our hundred 25th year, uh, this year. And, uh, obviously our great-great-grandfather started the business and we're a part of the [00:08:00] fifth generation. I'm president of the company, Jimmy's our vice president of sales.

Our younger brother, Patrick's a welder out in our manufacturing shop. And our cousin, uh, Kevin Bolen is an estimator for us, uh, in the. And, you know, every generation of Kennedy's had different challenges they had to overcome to pass it to the next, but overall, I would say it's a commitment by the family and especially the family members who've worked in the business the last five generations to really want to keep it going.

Mm-hmm. to want, um, it to continue to grow and to make good long-term decisions that have allowed the next generation to come behind. Right. Yeah. 

Vince: Um, we just finished 2022. You said it was a, you had had last couple years have been really good. Um, anything in particular that really drives your guys' business?

Jim: Yeah, no, that's a, that's a good question Vince. So right now, really in 2023, we're in such a sweet spot when it comes to the tank and vessel industry [00:09:00] cuz we're doing a lot of business with a lot of old school industries such as refineries. Steel mills, but now we're getting involved in a lot of this renewable work.

Okay. So we're working with plants that are turning landfill plastics into biofuels and also doing a lot of different innovative recycling processes that are just getting started here in the us. Um, a lot of these processes are big overseas, but now that they're getting started, we're really getting the best of both worlds, which has really helped us cuz we have a.

Customer base have been with us a long time. They really, you know, value the quality of the work that we do. But now that we're getting in front of new customers in these exciting spaces, the 

Bill: sky truly is the limit. And I would say since the pandemic started, uh, the United States finally figured out that we needed to start, start manufacturing things again.

And a lot of our customers instead are relying on China. And overseas countries are bringing manufacturing back and they're building onto their sites. They're ordering more tanks, vessels and to have more control [00:10:00] of their whole pipeline and uh, no matter what industry we're in, our customer base has just been expanding the last three years and it's been a fun ride to be a part of.

Yeah, I'm 

Vince: glad mentioned reassuring, just because I know in our industry selling chemicals or paints to manufacturers in the last. three years probably. You know, pandemic aside, we've started to get inquiries from jobs or companies that typically aren't. still being done here in the us mm-hmm. , uh, which has, which has been interesting to see.

And, and we two been talk about restoring for probably the last decade. Mm-hmm. , but I think there's been some real momentum and it sounds like you guys are seeing 

Bill: the same thing. 

Jim: Yes, we absolutely are. And you know, as Bill's answer to the first question, really the difference at Kennedy Tank is our people.

So I was@cars.com for about six years in Chicago and Denver doing advertising sales and a couple sales roles and cars dot com's a wonderful company and the people just do a tremendous job, but going. , you know, an office job where your typical day, you're in the [00:11:00] office at eight 30, you're out the door, right at five to Kennedy Tank, where half our employees are at work at 5:00 AM mm-hmm.

um, their alarm clocks, most our employees alarm clocks go, goes off actually in the threes because they have to drive an hour 

Bill: to get to work. 

Jim: and they work till four. But if you'll let 'em work till 5, 5 30 and earn some overtime, they certainly will. And our office office is as dedicated as well as any office team I've been around.

So that's been. 

Bill: a huge part. It obviously helps 

Jim: that the fact that, you know, just our clothes, for example, the raw material in our clothes, all of the raw materials for this shirt was in a tank or a vessel at some point. Um, so certainly it helps that the market has stayed strong and there's such a need for our products.

But it really comes down to those, those people and, uh, obviously the family's been very important, but also non-family members. Tru. Tree Kennedy Tank, like they're a part of the ownership group, which is our, it's our big difference. Yep. Yeah. Well said. 

Joe: Well, you're, you, it's obviously there's a, a [00:12:00] touch of pride when you, when you say fifth generation, cuz it's something you've repeated and, and, and, and certainly understandable, uh, as it's sort of a general rule thumb.

There are a lot of family businesses that never make it past the third generation. And, and you, you commented this in your intro, uh, on the idea that family members from generation to generation, you know, the. The older generation makes it a point to have something to pass on to the younger generation, then obviously instill something in them.

So what was it for you guys as you're growing up, particularly in your, in your high school years and in undergraduate that said, okay, maybe I want to join the family business at some point. Like, what, what drove that? 

Jim: Right. So, um, our father. 

Bill: Obviously he unfortunately passed away at the beginning of Covid, but he was our fourth generation president for 25 years.

And Jimmy and I and our younger brother Patrick, who works at Kennedy Tank, we all just loved our dad and we grew up playing basketball very competitively. And dad, he would, you [00:13:00] know, rebound out in our front yard. We had a full court, uh, court with lights and everything, and we spent so much time with our dad when he was outside of work.

that really growing up, I just always wanted to spend more time with him and work, work with him professionally. Um, because like I tell our team members all the time, we spend more time with each other than we do our families a lot of the time with how many hours and how hard we all worked together. Um, but the interesting thing growing up in high school and everything, our dad put zero pressure on us.

To join the family business. And he would even tell us that I think you guys can make more money outside the family business than you can inside if you work, you know, as good a or as, as highly as I think of you guys, that you could work your way up the chain of a publicly traded company based in Indianapolis and do really, really well.

But we were, we always just. Grown to him. And when I graduated from Bloomington, I, uh, went to IU and studied finance down there at that beautiful place. [00:14:00] Uh, our dad had a clause that said any, any family members had to graduate from college. Work outside the business for two years and then interview with the executive team if a position opened up.

And, uh, I got an internship and then did a full-time job in Louisville for two years. And then, uh, uh, proposed to my wife, got married, uh, and did, started my, uh, mba. But I always, even in high school and college, although we'd never talk about it openly, I always wanted to be a part of the business to spend more time with.

Yeah. 

Jim: Yeah. Which is really interesting cuz my dad was an only son and he grew up even as early as late high school painting tanks. Yeah. Okay. So whenever he was trying to make a buck and definitely in college he was at the plant painting tanks kind of offhand learning the business. Um, but I am internally grateful for him not pushing it upon us, which is.

um, all of us really went elsewhere first and then ended up kind of [00:15:00] organically coming back home to what we believe is the greatest city in the United States, Indianapolis, um, and working for Kennedy Tank. Yeah, I 

Vince: Kudos to your dad. Cause I, I've talked to, let's say, young kids. Kids like you guys, I was 16 when you were born, which makes me feel really old.

Um, but kids who have, who are like, like, like us, they have a family business. They have the opportunity where they could go straight to college and. Um, but if I ever get the opportunity to talk to him, I recommend, just like your dad did, go somewhere else. Go cut your teeth on someone else's dime. Cuz let's face it, I mean, at 22 yeah, we don't know what the hell we're doing.

Right? Um, and, and half of us don't even know what we still won't want to do. Um, so go kind of figure things out somewhere else and really determine, do you want to then come back and join it? Some, sometimes you may, you may not. Um, and I, I think more times than. It has worked itself out and, and probably been better off for folks to do that, so I'm glad, glad your dad, uh, had mentioned that and you guys also kind of followed suit with that.

That's 

Joe: good. Mm-hmm. . So, uh, on on the [00:16:00] business side, we touched, or Vince used the word I was gonna use reassuring what you touched on. Which sounds like a catalyst of, obviously with, with covid and resulting supply chain issues, which were probably already sort of going to emerge at some point and just got exacerbated very quickly by a Right.

A global pandemic. Mm-hmm. , um, I, I assume that, , there's still some carryover from 21, 22 going into 23 from demand on that. But what does the crystal ball look like for you guys for 23? What are some of your greatest opportunities that you see coming down this next, you know, 12 months and probably what are your greatest concerns or, or, uh, challenges that you foresee?

Jim: Yeah, it's interesting. Um, really, you know, when Covid hit, we all thought the worst. And, and frankly, after about a six month kind of gray period, uh, demand. Continued to rise, which, which we definitely didn't see, and then it got to the point in 20, I would say late. Let's see, late 2021 to halfway through [00:17:00] 2022, where customers didn't even care what the price was.

They needed the product and we were getting pos. Honestly, we are 30, 40% busier than we'd ever been, and we were getting orders pretty much site unseen. And I think now as we transition to a more normal supply chain as deliver. Kind of scale back and actually improve. Customers are still moving forward with, with projects and numerous industries, but they are starting to 

Bill: look at, at costs.

Mm-hmm. , uh, 

Jim: specifically. So I think, uh, you know, that that fun period. , it's probably over. We're still in a good market. We think, um, outside of, you know, interest rates, economy, stock market, et cetera, we think a lot of capital projects are going to move forward, especially thanks to the Indiana Economic Development Committee.

I want to give a shout out to them cuz they, I mean, the amount of companies coming to Indiana. Bonkers when it comes to manufacturing. Um, so we expect this year to be a good year. We are about [00:18:00] 25% busier than we've been in the past. Uh, , you know, 10 years on average right now, which is down a little bit from where we were a year ago, but still, it's a wonderful place to start and we think it'll be really strong.

Yeah, 

Bill: I agree with that. We think it's still a really solid market. It's not as crazy in bonkers like Jimmy says, as it was there for, uh, nine months. But we continue to be extremely busy working a lot of overtime, hiring, uh, building a lot of tanks. Welding like crazy. 

Jim: Yeah, it's been interesting. One piece of our puzzle is obviously the material market.

Mm-hmm. . So we build tanks and vessels of carbon, steel, stainless steel, exotic alloys that range from 40 cents a pound all the way up to about. Eight bucks a pound. Okay. Um, in post covid that the pricing, not only demand, but pricing for those products due to war, Ukraine, et cetera, um, really went through the roof.

And there's still, you know, depending on what you're looking at, it's either double or two and a half [00:19:00] times the historical price, which 

Bill: honestly kind of helps 

Jim: us because the tank that used to cost 20,000 is now maybe 27,000. And, you know, you're still marketing it up. a certain percent, which hopefully will add to the bottom line.

Right. Um, but our industry is unique. It's really a lot of family businesses. Kind of like Kennedy Tank. We're in the definitely when it comes to tank and vessel fabricator. caters. We're on the larger end. We're not the largest, but certainly on the larger end. And it's a lot of just wonderful people that work hard.

Um, it's not a lot of big corporations, uh, which kind of plays into our unique advantage by using technology, uh, you know, bettering our processes internally, uh, to make us the best 

we 

Bill: can be. Mm-hmm. . 

Jim: Yeah. How have 

Vince: you guys seen raw material supplies that starting to get. 

Bill: It is, I think it definitely is compared to some of the worst parts of Covid.

Uh, stainless, it's coming down a little bit sta carbon seals definitely coming down, but, uh, we do about half our work in carbon. Half our work in [00:20:00] stainless. Stainless again, has just the last couple of weeks. Uh, nickel has really, uh, risen quite a bit, which has caused, uh, stainless to jump up again. It's pretty much at an all time high.

but we at least can get the material. And if we can get it, we can build it. , we got 

Joe: a slight price decrease on, uh, five gallon steel pails, so that was nice start. Oh yeah, that wonderful. 

Bill: You haven't heard that 

Joe: in a while. No, of course. The same hour that I got that email, I had four other emails with price increases and other materials, so Yep.

You know, it's good with the bad. 

Bill: Yep. Um, you, 

Vince: we talked about your dad a little bit. Um, I was, I had the pleasure of knowing your dad. Um, couple things I wanted to ask you. , we had a prior guest was a buddy of mine who was in a somewhat similar role as, as you guys was in the family of business. Probably a plan in place, but certainly was premature.

And his and his father passed away unexpectedly and kind of thrust him into a role that he might have been destined for, but not at that [00:21:00] point in time. Um, I don't know. How far along your guys' plan was, if that plan existed. Um, and, and, and certainly, you know, your father's passing was, was, was not planned.

Um, so two things. One, kudos to you guys for, for stepping in and it's been a little bit of time now and I've, I, I, from what I've seen from the outside, things are, haven't really missed a beat or are plugging away. So you, kudos to you guys for doing that. But, um, how would you say, obviously it was a very difficult time.

How would you say that whole process went? Do you think you were well set up for that transition or was it like, oh shit, 

Bill: now what do we do? Right. Yeah. Let me 

Jim: talk on this real quick. Really. You know, we Was there a plan in place? Yes, there probably was, but we are so fortunate to have. to have Bill as our leader.

So it was truly a no-brainer. So Bill had been with the company about five, about seven years prior, had ran our manufacturing, started and purchasing had bettered our [00:22:00] manufacturing from what I used to call, you know, we were the Notre Dame. Fighting Irish. Now we're the Dallas Cowboys, especially when the Cowboys are good.

Obviously we hope to become the old New England Patriots, 

Bill: but Bill had been such a vital, well, the old Indianapolis Cols. Yeah. Or the old 

Jim: Colts. But Bill had been such a vital part of bettering our entire process. We all knew that, you know, whether it was five years from now, 10 years from now, whatever that timeframe was, he was going to lead the company.

Um, so when unfortunately, dad passed, really no decision to be made. If you had interviewed 250 employees, 250 would've said, you know, this is a no-brainer. Bill's the best guy to move us forward. Yeah, thanks to that and thanks to the entire team. The executive team, which Bill will talk about is a good mix of young and old.

Um, the team or the company has just moved forward 

Bill: at a rapid pace. Yeah. Well, thank you Jim. And it was just a shocking time when Dad, uh, obviously is right at the beginning of Covid and April of, uh, 2020. And, you know, back then you weren't even [00:23:00] able to get tested for it. Uh, all the ERs were full. They really weren't accepting people, and it was just a real, real tough deal.

Our dad was healthier than we both are. You know, less than 10% body fat. Twice a day and just unfortunately the mix of, uh, his genetic makeup and that virus just went downhill and it went extremely fast. So, um, we sure do miss him, but our team came together. Uh, the family included, everyone was on the same page.

Everyone knew, uh, the right decisions that needed to be made and we just moved on right away, continued his legacy forward and uh, for us. You know, obviously losing our dad at such a young age is very sad, and we think about him absolutely constantly, but we know what he would want us to do, which is take care of the business, uh, move forward, work hard, treat people fairly, and, uh, his grave sites within a mile of Kennedy Tank.

So we always feel, uh, Feel that he's with us and helping, uh, help us make good decisions and move the [00:24:00] business forward. And it's been a hell of a run. Uh, then everyone at Kennedy Tank will tell you that we really haven't lost a beat and we've improved in a lot of different ways. And, uh, just finished up our fiscal year.

It was our best year ever by a wide margin, and we're optimistic about 2020. Yes. So going 

Vince: through that whole experience, um, on a professional level, anything you learned that you would want to, to pass along to anybody else who might find themselves in the same situation? 

Bill: You know, show up it, the covid was really difficult, and it was really difficult when dad passed, but the la the year after that, or the 18 months or two years after that, it really wasn't that much easier because we have 225 employees.

You know, people are getting covid people. The hardest part about Covid, I would say, is the different ways people reacted to it. You had both pendulums, you know, some people would react one way, the other people would react the other way. You wanted to treat everyone fairly and protect, protect our teammates.

But, uh, it was just different. It was like the song that never ends, almost, [00:25:00] that every day and every week we would be dealing with different issues. and uh, what I would tell a young leader who had to face anything similar is one, just do the best you can. Two, show up every day. Work hard. Three, treat people fairly.

And four, and I think this happened quite a bit during the pandemic. Leaders didn't know the one, the government didn't know the answers. So leaders at company, at family businesses that have 225 employees, guess what? They didn't either. But it is okay to say you do not. and that, uh, you don't have all the answers.

And, uh, I, looking back, I think any leader leading through the pandemic would probably say they wish they did that a little bit more because, uh, the whole thing was just a total mess. 

Joe: Yeah. I would, I, I listened to your story and, uh, you have two business school case studies that are very serious situations mashed into one, like.[00:26:00] 

ultimate case study. Um, so it's, uh, it's incredibly impressive to, to hear your answers, uh, both on the professional side and of course the personal side. I mean, you can, you can hear it, uh, in your voice. Um, and, and I think from our experience, we, we would agree with you guys on, on the comment you made. You know, it seemed like from April of 20, in the six months that followed that.

Were certainly very challenging because as you noted, there was a lot of unknown. Mm-hmm. and all we could do from our business. I was just try to find some sort of guiding light or some sort of principle and, and stick to that and be consistent with it. But then beyond that, going into 21 and all of 22, while business was very strong cause demand was off the charts.

It was probably more challenging than that six months of like depth of Covid because you just, it was, as you mentioned, sales are this January, Aren as strong as last January, but they're still very strong historically. And in a way, as much as I don't like saying man, having a little bit less revenue is good.

It's just, [00:27:00] it's kinda like, oh, like you can breathe a little bit because the, the 21, 22 pace, no way Anyone And from speaking on my own behalf. Yeah, no way I could have sustained that. Right, because it was just bananas. Yes. So it, it's, it's, it's almost refreshing, you know, misery loves company in a way, right?

It's refreshing to hear everyone's stories. Okay. Yeah. Well, we can commiserate on those things. Really good things going on. You know, a lot of problems. All, most of which were good, but nonetheless problems. And it, it, it puts a little age on you for sure. Mm-hmm. . So more, more so for him than it does for me.

But, you know, that's how it works. Yeah. 

Jim: Well 

Bill: said. Yeah. I hope we never have to go through another pandemic 

Joe: again. No kidding. Um, I have a question to, to, to, to segue in much to a much lighter side mm-hmm. , uh, or a much lighter conversation. Uh, you guys are a big racing family. , you have a history there, uh, that goes back, you know, many decades.

Mm-hmm. , before asking any of my questions, if you could tell listeners the, the story of how he, that all kind of started the race car, the, the famous or infamous race car, uh, the candy [00:28:00] special. Would love to 

Bill: hear that. Yes, well, we love Indianapolis 500. We have, uh, over a hundred tickets for every race. We caravan about 25 cars together, meet at 5:00 AM at our aunt and uncle's house, the fairchilds and caravan, and all park together.

No 

Jim: Christmas reath 

Joe: customers, by the way. Good, good, 

Jim: good. About 

Bill: 70 of us sit together and the other 30, uh, sit all over and we have a big breakfast tailgate before the race. But the funnest tailgate is the post-race tailgate. So we'll be out in lot two until about 11:00 PM Every race night, we will have a bunch of speakers, beard, eye, flip cup, uh, beer pong, you name it, we play it, and there'll.

Three, 400 people that all meet in lot two after the race. So you guys, I know you're big IndyCar fans, race fans, 

Jim: lot two after the race, 

Joe: they're gonna join us PM I'm sure. Please join us. Basically. So the yellow shirt, love 

Jim: you guys. Oh yeah, 

Bill: yeah. But we, uh, used to Kennedy Tank used to sponsor, uh, cars in the Indianapolis 500 from 1936 to [00:29:00] 1952.

Our. Finished that the Kennedy Tech special placed was eighth, and that was in, we started 14th, finished eighth in 19, uh, 46, which was great, great for us. But, uh, my dad wrote two books on the Indianapolis 500. One is a 500 question trivia book. The other is a CliffNotes version of every single race. And about four months after he wrote his first trivia book, uh, someone.

My dad, uh, on his work phone and says, Hey, we have your car. And he goes, well, you don't have my car. I'm looking at it right out the window. It's in the parking lot. He goes, and he says, no, I think I have your Kennedy Tank special race car. I've read your book. So my dad in a group, uh, went, drove out to Illinois and, uh, inspected the car that it was not in very good shape, but they were able to confirm that it was the actual car that we sponsored in Indy 500.

Uh, Kennedy Tank purchased the car and refurbished it to its original condition. [00:30:00] It sits in our lobby. Anyone's welcome to come see it, and it still drives it almost 140 miles an hour. And, uh, you know, we love Roger Penske and that whole group, but, uh, before their ownership, Uh, started, uh, we were able to take it out to the track, uh, two or three times a year and run it with all the old cars.

And it was an absolute blast. It was my dad's favorite thing to do, and we'd always say it was the most dangerous thing you could ever do. watching your dad actually go 140 miles an hour in a car with a leather helmet that has a hand break and is shaking the whole time. Yes. 

Jim: So the, so the Kennedy Tank special, which we have in our lobbyist, bill mentioned, um, ran in 1940.

so, so Les Anderson out of Portland, Oregon, built the car, drove it, it actually ran in 48 and 49. So in 48 he drove it, finished in the twenties, in 49, he couldn't get the speed that needed to qualify. Cuz back then you had much more obviously than, than, I mean, I think sometimes you had [00:31:00] over 60 cars qualifying, right?

Mm-hmm. . Um, so another gentleman drove it in 49, um, and the qualifying speed. One, I think they got it up to one 50, but it was around one 30. Um, average, average, average lap. So our dad, as Bill mentioned, favorite thing to do in the world a couple times a year would get out there. And, uh, especially a couple years ago, there weren't a whole lot of rules and speed limits associated with the lapse that he ran.

And so I qualified in 48, 49 at one 30 and dad was going about about one 20 on the straits. Um, and we would time it and kind of wave to him. And, you know, at the start he was waving by the end he was white. Knuckling it. Yep. . 

Bill: Um, but that was his. and he would, we would get 

Jim: to the track on Fast Friday.

Literally we'd go to Charlie Brown's, get there at right at 6:00 AM be at the track by six 30 to watch him with about 10 other people. And you just had the ultimate respect for him. And Dad always kind of had a, he was a very charismatic, [00:32:00] uh, guy, certainly loved by so, . Um, but he had a glow about him at the track and there was nothing, I still 

Bill: haven't seen anything like it.

People just were absorbed to 

Jim: him. Um, and 

Bill: he, 

Jim: I wanna say he went to 59 straight Indy 

Bill: five hundreds, 59 or 60. It's right around there. Yeah. Yeah. 57. Uh, was it 57? Okay. 

Jim: Which just shows that was, there was nothing quite like it. Yeah. When 

Vince: was the last time that 

Bill: car's been on the track? So just before the pandemic, um, would've been in the.

Before summer of 2019, but we did, Patrick, our young brother, who's a welder out in our shop, uh, he ran it quite a bit around Kennedy Tank. We have a 21 acre property, about 110 square, uh, thousand square feet under roof that we fabricate in. And we have a big oval, of course, around buildings. And Patrick was whipping it around this summer because it had been.

Since the summer of 2019, since we had actually, uh, driven it and put miles on [00:33:00] it, and Patrick's gonna carry that legacy forward. Real passionate about it. He works with Bill Yael, who's our, uh, one of our maintenance men, uh, on the car. And Pat has learned a lot about it, and he just drives it very fast around our property.

My next question is, 

Vince: when that thing comes back out, who's, 

Bill: who's driving it, I think answer to that. So Patrick is, and we hadn't touched on this, but. So Jimmy's our great Vice President of sales at Kennedy Tank. I'm the president of the three businesses. Patrick, uh, was a really good basketball player at Sheard.

Then he went to the Kelly School in Bloomington with us, was a fraternity brother of ours, and he, uh, studied finance. And all through schooling starting at a very young age, pat was always the most naturally and hardest working student. A very high IQ student. Got really good grades. Didn't quite get in Notre Dame, but got close and, uh, he did a sales job right outta college, and he didn't like it.

It just didn't fit him. And, uh, he wanted to do something with his [00:34:00] finance major that he could, at the end of the day, be proud of what he did and what he built. So he started welding for us on nights. We used to do day shift, night shift. Now we've moved everyone to days, but Pat would do his sales job and then spend about four hours at Kennedy Tank learning how to weld.

And he got, he had no welding experience, you know, no one in the Kennedy family had welded since our, uh, great-grand. and, uh, pat joined us full-time as a welder out in the shop. Uh, joined us on days was, uh, on the structural section. So a lot of flexor Phillip welds and was learning, learning, learning and doing really well.

Then Dad and I wanted him to, uh, go get a welding degree from, uh, Hobart Institute of Welding's, uh, nine month structural program in, uh, Troy, Ohio. and Pat went and did that on nights, uh, for nine months, then came back in our shop and he's been with us a total of seven [00:35:00] years. He's one of the guys boilermaker in the shop, uh, welding for us, treated exactly like everyone else.

And it's just so wonderful to have, you know, a guy. Uh, In the family, in the Fitz generation, that is just one of the guys fabricating in the shop, working hard, bell to bell, showing up at five 30, work until 4:00 PM or 5:30 PM and Jimmy's doing a great job in sales, managing sales and estimating. I, since dad passed, had to step up into the president role.

But to have a fitz generation with his growing company that has family members and all different levels, uh, of the organization has just been awesome for. Yeah. 

Vince: What do we need to do to get that car back on the track, though? 

Bill: So we're gonna work Doug, Doug Bulls, if you're watching. Love. We love Doug. We, we, and Pack will wear a blue suit in your Honor, if we can get the car back on the track.

Yeah. 

Jim: Is it 

Joe: worthy? Like, is it, I'm sure it sounds like it's roadworthy enough that if you wanted to take, you know, to participate in the, uh, was it the S R V A or Vintage Automobile Racing is, I 

Jim: don't know if 

Bill: they've we're gonna get it [00:36:00] out there. The most proud moment we've been of the car was on the 100th.

Of Indy 500, I forget the year. Rossi won maybe 2015 or 16, whatever year it was. My dad gets a call at 10:00 PM and they had, I believe, and I could be wrong on this, my dad of course would know, but I believe they had 33 cars before the race, say two or three hours before the race Do parade laps. Yeah. And it was the most 33 or however many most famous cars that they had.

And one of 'em, uh, they could not get. And they figured this out at 10:00 PM That night? The night, the night before the race. The night before the race. Yeah. So they call Doug and their team, uh, call my dad, who was laying in bed. Obviously we try to go to bed early the night before the race, since we're up at 3:00 AM and, uh, My dad works with Bill Yael, or maintenance guy, the legend, and they pull an all-nighter and because it's really hard, like at 6:00 AM you never could get that truck and trailer with the car in it to the right location to be able to do laps on the track.[00:37:00] 

So they pull an all-nighter, get it to IMS at uh, 2:00 AM. The morning of the race and Sam Hornes Jr. And we're all there, 70 of us sitting together and we're cheering on our car, the Kennedy Tank special, being driven by Sam Hornes Jr. That's pretty cool. Uh, two hours before the hundredth running. So that, that was a really proud moment.

That's awesome. 

Joe: That is awesome. I, I recall the vintage race cars going around. Mm-hmm. , um, that. One of the cooler parts of obviously the hundreds running and little, obviously everything was a little bit extra right for that race, and that was awesome to see. Yeah, I mean, you go to the museum, which I love going to, and you can see it, but then to actually see it, the fact like, oh my gosh, there's like the Marmon mosques, it's actually running, right?

Yes. 

Bill: Yep. That's pretty cool. There actually is a photo of Sam Hornish Jr. Uh, I believe, waving to Parnell Jones, who is driving the Marmon Wasp. Uh, that sits right in our lobby. A picture you can see the special. that beautiful car. 

Vince: Thats awesome. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we appreciate you guys bringing these books in.

Yep. This reminds me, one of my last experiences with [00:38:00] your dad was, we were out at the track 

Bill: for, um, 

Vince: was it the abc did a day at the track, the ABC group. We were out there with our dad and sometime at, you know, this is end of the night practice 

Bill: is already over, but we're sitting in. 

Vince: Speedway 

Bill: Motel, the flag room probably.

Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. 

Vince: sitting in the bar, you know, having another cocktail that none of us needed. Um, talking about just race history and you're basically, it's like, like pulling your dad's string and just letting him go. And we're just sitting here just kind of absorbing all this stuff, which was pretty cool experience.

Um, . Final question I've got for you guys is on the business side, every gener the next generation has, you know, thoughts on the business. They don't, most of 'em are not what we call cruise control Guys. We wanna make our own stamp. We don't just wanna be looking like, as you know, silver spoon kids that just kind of put it on cruise control and go with the flow.

What would you guys say? Is gonna be your stamp. What do you think will be your stamp to take, [00:39:00] take Kennedy Tank to the next level? So 

Bill: we, through our, uh, businesses, we had the busiest year we've ever had in 2022, we worked about 370,000 labor hours at our three manufacturing shops in our field division.

When you, uh, combine it all and what Jimmy and I and our exec. Been the family always talk about is we want to incrementally and successfully grow and work more hours, you know, employ more people and mo keep moving our business in the right, in the right direction. Uh, incrementally. And, uh, two ways we're doing this at this time is we have two big construction projects going on both at Kennedy Tank.

At Staco Staco. We're building an indoor blast building so we can put a nice profile on the tanks. before we paint the tanks. Uh, since 1952, we've sort of been doing that half outside, half in a shed, but now we're gonna have a new, uh, beautiful building that will allow us to do it inside [00:40:00] before we push the tanks into the paint building.

And at Kennedy Tank, we have a force constructions helping us with a, uh, about 60 by a hundred foot, uh, large fabrication building that our field division's gonna use. To, uh, build mechanical piping projects and also do as m e and tank repair and Sheldon tube heat exchanger repair. So a part of that incremental growth is having enough square footage space to be able to build, uh, what we build.

And we have two nice size construction projects, uh, going on now. But I don't think this generation's really focused about recreating the wheel or, uh, changing too much. It's just allowing, we have great people, like Jimmy said, we love our people. They love. They all have very long tenure and stay with us, um, for their careers for the most part.

And we just want to give our people all the tools we can to be successful. My dad's biggest motto was, we win as a team. We lose as a team, and we really believe in sharing the, uh, year-end results with our teammates who are making the results [00:41:00] happen. And it's one of the big reasons we have such good, uh, dedicated employees.

So I'd say this generat. wants to incrementally grow like we have been and give our team the resources they need to be successful. Yeah, I 

Jim: think that's very well said there. I think the only thing I'd add is, you know, a part of our stamp will just be how we treat people. I mean, as Bill mentioned, you're with the people you work with more than you're with your family.

Right. Um, I think we brought kind of a more of a focus on the whole person, not just the person at work. Um, and you know, that culture's developed honestly. Minute by minute, hourly basis, and you can lose it honestly on a minute by minute basis. So it's continuing that focus. It's really thanks to Bill Dan Yoder, our team, we do dove extremely deep in technology.

I mean, we literally have gone from whiteboards to touchscreen monitors all throughout our facility. That has made us just a ridiculous amount of. More [00:42:00] efficient. Mm-hmm. . So I think the technology's big, but I also think how we treat people and obviously the controllables effort, attitude, um, which were, you know, a big part of my dad's philosophy as well will always be 

Bill: a key.

Jim: Yep. Awesome. Any questions that you guys 

Bill: have for us? I was hoping you'd give us that. Well, what 

Jim: are some advice you two would have for, you know, 30 you guys can remember back when you were 34. 

Bill: Barely. You've 

Jim: had, you guys have a lot of great experiences in your careers. What advice would you give to guys like us?

Vince: Well, that I shared that first one with anybody deciding to come into a family business, to, to make sure they go elsewhere first. Just to kind of, you know, get their feet wet, um, 

Joe: you know, , 

Vince: my big thing is just is, is like I'm never satisfied. And so that was kind of where that, that last question stemmed from is trying to figure out what is, what is that stamp that we can put on, on the business?

And, and Joe and I have talked, you know, numerous [00:43:00] times about where do we want to take the company and it's not just, you know, taking what Dad had done and, and just kind of riding that, but, but taking it and, and building on that. Um, so. . I, I don't know that's necessarily advice. It's just, it's just kind of this, this, this school of thought, this, you know, this attitude, if you will, that that, um, I, I think people going into a, regardless of what generation it is into a family business, needs to have that, that attitude of, of pressing forward.

Don't, don't sit back and we all, we all know the only constant in life has changed. Right, right. And so just because the company's been successful the last hundred years, Doesn't mean it's gonna continue for the next a hundred. You've gotta continue to adapt and, and figure that out. And if that means, you know, taking it up a notch, then, then so be it.

Joe: Um, wow. Uh, so I'll be 45 in a couple weeks. So 11 years ago would've been what? 2020, sorry, 2012 ish. So we were. , you know, I joined the business right before the great Recession hit . [00:44:00] Um, and it's kind of funny, I came to the business, I, I joked that I was guilted into the family business. Uh, cuz no one just joins the coatings industry.

You kinda get sucked in, uh, and then once you're in, you're never spit back out. Um, but I joined with the idea of going back to graduate school and getting my mba and then being part of a, at that time a much smaller family business during that span of the recession, like, I feel like I earned my master's about five times over.

Right. Um, and so 2012 we were outside the recession, but the, I mean, the wound is still, I still have that emotional scar, I think. Um, but in 2012 growth coming out of that time period was really, really small. Um, and very incremental because of a lot of the regulations of the government in, in most cases, rightfully so.

But in, in plenty of cases, kind of probably overdid some of the, some of the regulation that really, um, Inhibit that economic rebound of coming back up above, uh, whatever [00:45:00] equilibrium was at that time. Um, so I look back and I, yeah, I, I would probably tell myself, um, at that time that number one, it's gonna be hard.

Uh, number two, don't quit. . And, uh, the third thing I would tell myself would be just whatever decisions that are gonna be made be really, really stubborn, uh, and borderline hardheaded on them. Uh, like if you're gonna make a decision, believe in it. That doesn't mean don't be open to feedback or open to other people's opinions when making the decision.

But once it's made, believe that you've made the right. . Um, and, and I think for the most part, over the last 10 plus years, uh, we've more than quadrupled in size. We've had some acquisitions, we've had, we've grown people. Um, and, and similar to your story, we have a lot of people that have been with us for a very long time.

Um, we have an, when we interview people, we have a question that says, how long do you want to keep this job? And my [00:46:00] hope is that people say, well, I. well won't work here until I retire, because our hope, when we hire someone, no matter what level that's at, that they say, wow, this is a great company. We wanna be a lifer.

Hmm. Um, if we can continue to see that and that that's the true feedback, right? If you're doing the right thing as a manager and creating a safe environment for people to thrive. If people keep coming back year after a year, then you know you're doing something right. If you have a lot of turnover, maybe you need to, to do some serious self-reflection on what kind of business you're running.

Um, but those are kind of three things. probably would've, you know, told my 34 year old self. 

Yeah. 

Bill: That's great stuff. That's great. Yeah. Thank you guys. I can't remember when I was 34. . . It's been a while. Wow. Unfortunately, IU has not won a national championship since you turned 40, 34. . Well, you know, 

Joe: it's funny, my oldest, that's way to put it, , my oldest child was at, that was maybe like a few days ago, or maybe last week, I can't remember.

IU had lost the cult lost, like everyone's, all of our teams [00:47:00] kind of earned in a, just the dumps. And he, he's like, man, why do, why does Indianapolis sports or Indiana sports suck so bad? And I was like, you know, I remember when IU won its last National, national Championship. I was really young, I mean, I was nine when IU won in 87, but I remember when they went to the national championship in 2001, I was in, I mean, I was, I had just graduated.

I went back to Nixon in Bloomington to watch the game. Oh, great. Um, I was, you know, I remember the, obviously the Colt's winning the Super Bowl and going to a second Super and all that stuff. And he looked at me and he was like, oh, you're so old . Like, you're just so old and terrible. It's like, yes, I 

Bill: know.

I'm wretched. Yeah. Not to go crazy on Bloomington, but Jimmy and i's first four years, or first our four years at Bloomington, were Tom Crane's first four years at iu, so the first year we are the worst basketball team in the history of the world. Yeah, second year got a little bit better, but I think we only won one Big 10 game.

It was still really rough. Third year, finally won like four or five, uh, big 10 games and showed some promise. Won a couple big ones in our junior year. Then senior [00:48:00] year, thank God we'll never forget when. Committed iu. We really desperately needed him. He committed. We had a really good year. We beat, you know, we went from winning one or zero big 10 games our freshman year to beating Kentucky at home and storming the court.

We were at the Sweet 16 Kentucky game where Kentucky had shot 65% from the free throw line that entire year. And then they go 94%, uh, with 31 free throw shot against us to, uh, beat us narrowly in Atlanta. We were at that one and just love iu. Want us to get back to the top like where we should be and we think Woody's gonna.

All good. Well, there you have it, folks. Yep. 

Vince: All right. That concludes another episode, the Industrious podcast. We appreciate you guys for tuning into this episode. If you happen to be watching on the Assessor YouTube channel, thank you for doing so and hit that little notification bell so you can be alerted with next new episodes like this one drop.

Thanks guys for listening, and don't forget, be 

Bill: industrious.[00:49:00]