By
NICK GOSNELL and RICK KRAUS
Hutch Post
SOUTH HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Stainless Systems, Inc. is the Market South Hutch Business of the Month.
"We started as a sole proprietorship in 1995, incorporated the business in 1998, struggled a bit and relaunched the business in 2004, said Stainless Systems, Inc. President Greg Roepka. "We've been doing the same thing pretty much ever since."
Roepka said the business was started to fill a hole left when Reno Technologies was sold.
"We build and install industrial food equipment," Roepka said. "That's our niche, and we do some contract fabrication, but it's mostly related to stainless steel material. The meat industry is a pretty small, tight-knit community. It's basically based on who you know."
Stainless Systems, Inc. has 22 employees.
"There's a lot of big companies that manufacture things like ovens and spiral freezers and things like that," Roepka said. "There's a lot of support equipment that has to go with that. We do the fill in the blank part of that. We fill in with the conveyors, the dumpers, the material handling equipment. We do maintenance, repair work. We've installed robotic pack off systems, all kinds of technology, what they call labor reduction, which is automation, basically."
The fewer hands that touch food during processing, the better chance of ending up with clean food and no injuries.
"We do a lot of safety contracts to take care of guarding issues and things like that, to protect people from getting hurt," Roepka said.
Stainless Systems, Inc. is an essential business with its role in food production.
"We do some work in the dairies," Roepka said. "We do some work in the further processing plants, mainly. We do a little bit of work in slaughter facilities. It's mostly further processing stuff. Keeping those facilities running is critical to feeding people."
Roepka has his roots in South Hutchinson, even though he currently lives in Hutchinson.
"I was on the South Hutch fire department for 20 years," Roepka said. "I was on the city council for 8 years. I've been here, basically, most of my adult life in South Hutch.
The building is the same one Roepka worked in when it was built by Larry Doskocil back in the 1970s.
"It's an honor to be chosen," Roepka said. "The things we do, we like to do things to help the community. That's why the work on the Veterans Memorial and the things that we do are so important to us. The guys take a lot of pride in that. The city of South Hutch is just really good for business. In our view, we couldn't be anywhere that's better. They take good care of us. We help them any way that we can. It's a good working relationship."
Stainless Systems, Inc. is at 300 East 4th Ave in South Hutchinson.