SWEED Talks

As you may have noticed, things are looking a little different around these parts. We redesigned our website to be more attractive, easier to use, and better organized to ensure that our customers find the solutions right for them in only a few clicks. With a growing set of product lines, we focused on creating a menu navigation and sub-pages that are intuitive and clear to help our customers easily differentiate between our innovative lines of choppers, recycling systems, and material handling solutions. Product pages are enhanced with photos and videos that give additional context to how the equipment works and integrates into existing systems, plus we added a resource section with FAQs, a video library, our sales processes explained, and this blog!

This website redesign forms part of a larger rebranding effort that we are undertaking to make sure our look matches the high-quality, innovative work we produce. “We have been in a pretty significant growth phase for the last several years,” explains CEO Tyler Casebeer. To demonstrate that, our marketing department worked with Eugene-based Revolution Design Group to update our printed materials and website. It all still looks like Sweed, with our logo and classic orange and green, but the new overall feel is cleaner and more timeless to represent the cutting-edge solutions we engineer and the robust durability that allows our machines to last through years of heavy-duty use.

The growth that Tyler mentions goes beyond our website and printed collateral: as the wire and cable industry shifts and expands, we are evolving alongside it. This evolution really began five years ago when our previous CEO, Scott Ashpole, passed the torch to Tyler. “I had been in a leadership position in the company for almost 20 years,” says Scott. “It was time to hand over the reins.” He says that Tyler was a good fit for the job because his background in Sweed’s engineering department gave him a deep technical understanding of Sweed’s products and capabilities and his experience working with customers meant he had the people skills necessary to succeed. “He’s a very well-rounded person, and I didn’t want to hold him back by not letting him grow into who he could be,” Scott says.

One of the big initiatives that Tyler has undertaken during his time as CEO was the establishment of the company’s REACH values. “As an engineer, I recognize that what gets measured gets done, and I wanted to give us tools to measure our performance and progress,” Tyler says. “I worked closely with the management team along with employees across the company to find out what really matters to us and what defines the company that we want to be.” After months of work, they established five values that spell out the word “reach:” Respect the Relationship, Exceed Expectations, Advance through Innovation, Commit and Engage, and Health & Well-Being. These values have been woven into the fabric of our company and now define everything from our hiring process to how we treat our customers and vendors to what kinds of equipment we make. “If you don’t have a road map, you don’t know where you’re going. I wanted to help Sweed establish benchmarks and a direction for the future,” Tyler says.

With these REACH values in hand, and an eye toward the future, Tyler is helping effect other changes. “We’re becoming even more deliberate about what we do and why we do it, focusing on the things we’re really good at and making them even better,” he says. This sharpened focus has resulted in a large expansion of our product lines to include machines with greater processing capabilities that can integrate into even more systems. In our recycling systems product line, in particular, this growth is especially apparent thanks to the increase in companies committing to recycling goals and the changing policies that affect how American companies deal with scrap. “We’re now focused on bulk processing of linear-type products,” Tyler says.

The recycling line isn’t the only one experiencing growth: the chopper line is huge and provides a great foundation to our sales, and the material handling line has recently gone through an innovation process that has resulted in some patents that will keep us relevant for years to come. “We’re keeping our name in the forefront as providing the best veneer handling equipment in the world,” Tyler says.

But with all of this change, there’s still a lot of great stuff that’s staying the same. Alongside his sales/customer relations role for Sweed’s recycling systems product line, Scott is also a shareholder in the company and regularly talks with Tyler about key issues. “As an owner who has been with the company for 30 years, I provide mentorship and act as Sweed’s historian,” Scott says. “Sometimes that can be helpful.” And even though the product lines are growing, every piece of equipment still fits within Sweed’s longstanding commitment to create well-made and durable machines that last. “A huge part of Sweed’s heritage is in mill equipment that has to run 24/7, which means it has to be incredibly sturdy. We just never stopped building stuff that lasts for a long time and runs well,” Scott adds.

At the end of the day, though, the most important consistency in the midst of all of this growth is our people. “A lot of companies are fighting the battle of turnover in a market like this one, but we’ve managed to create a culture where people are happy and feel valued,” Scott says. “It’s not unusual for people to be here for extended periods of time.” Tyler thinks that the work also helps the culture. “Every day we’re making progress. It’s exhausting, but there’s a lot of satisfaction in it as well,” he says. “People in every corner of the organization are pushing, and it’s really fun to witness this new evolution.”