Matt Tietz, owner and vice president; Paul Uhlig, senior engineer; Sue Tietz, owner and president; and Paul Peplinksi, plant manager, make up the management team at McDonough Manufacturing Co., located in Eau Claire, Wis.
McDonough, A Family Tradition In Band Sawing Systems By Terry Miller
Eau Claire, Wis.—In 1888, Frank McDonough quit his job at a sawmill in Eau Claire, Wis., to take a hobby and make it into a full-time job. Today, the company practices the same core values as McDonough did when he started the company, building each piece of machinery specifically for the customer, ensuring that it meets his needs and even troubleshooting the equipment if there is ever a problem down the road.
Sue Tietz, president of the company, said that she is proud of the company and the values that are incorporated into every piece of machinery built. She is the third generation of her family to operate McDonough, and the history of the company is something that she does not take lightly.
John M. Kildahl was brought on in 1921 to liquidate the assets of the company after McDonough died and the company began to fail. Instead, he made a deal with the existing stockholders to take ownership of the company. Eventually, he died in 1950 and passed the company to his sons, John L. Kildahl, Tietz’s father, and his brother, Frederick R. Kildahl.
Tietz began working part-time at McDonough in 1964 while she was in high school. After graduating college in 1971 from the
One of McDonough’s products is the 6-foot Band Unit with “Round Way” Heavy Duty Linebar.
University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, she went to McDonough to work with her father. After her father passed away in 1990, she took over as president of the company. In 1995, her son, Matt Tietz, joined her in operating the company.
McDonough has changed over the years, but customer service and pride in quality have not, according to Matt, vice president of the company.
“We are old and we have been around a long time,” he said. “But, I think we’re one of the most progressive companies that markets primary breakdown systems for the forest products industry. Our product evolves every month.”
The company has changed over its more than 100-year history. In the first few years McDonough was in business, the company did headrigs, carriages, resaws, edgers and trimmers.
“Today, we are known for single-, twin- and quad-headrigs, linebar resaws, horizontal resaws, carriages—all of which makes up our band sawing systems,” Matt said. “We have really become specialized and known as a leader when it comes to the log breakdown process.”
Although McDonough doesn’t provide turnkey sawmills today, the company does have partners that they work with to provide customers with all the equipment they need. According to Matt, the company will put a package together for a customer and then work with another company to meet all the needs of a customer.
“The ultimate gratification is that our customers are just floored by how well two vendors work together to provide a technologically advanced sawmill,” he said. “We help our customers from the time they place the order throughout the existence of the machinery.”
McDonough also offers this 6-foot “A” Series Horizontal Resaw.
Engineers at McDonough will help customers over the phone, and Marvin Evans and Robert Moore, two service people who work outside of the company’s headquarters, travel to the customers’ locations to assist them.
“They do alignments and aid with installations,” Matt said. “They also have 15 years of experience each in filing and troubleshooting problems with saw blades.”
One of the things that drives the company, according to Matt, is the idea that if a sawmill is investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in machinery, they should be confident that the equipment will last, and if there is a problem, it will be resolved.
Sue agreed, saying that the company is unique in that they do not have a standard product. She said being able to custom build each piece of equipment is one of the things that McDonough prides itself on.
“We can build anything to the customer’s specification,” she said.
When a sawmill is not able to process wood because a machine is down, McDonough will provide the parts as soon as possible and in most cases, provide same-day parts service,” Sue said.
Among the machinery that the company offers is this 6-7A Band Mill, with a McDonough Precision Duty linebar carriage, installed at Mackeys Ferry in Roper, N.C.
“We are very proud of the fact that when somebody calls at 3:30 p.m., after our shipments have gone out, we have people here who will take it to UPS,” Sue said. “We have found that some vendors charge extra for that, but we do not. We have employees who will work after hours. We want to be the company that the customer remembers got them up and running when they needed it.”
In addition to changes in the types of products the company provides, the client base has also changed. Although more than 90 percent of the businesses the company services are in the United States, McDonough also makes machinery for companies in Canada, Austria, New Zealand and South America. They have three sales reps, Mark Miklos, Bob White and Peter McCarty, who market the company’s products.
McDonough is a member of the Indiana Lumbermen’s Assoc., the Lake States Lumber Assoc., the National Hardwood Lumber Assoc., the Hardwood Manufacturers Assoc. and the Southeastern Lumber Manufacturers Assoc.
Though the company has been in business, through ups and downs, for more than 100 years, it is evident that a lot has changed. However, according to Sue and Matt, the customer always has been and will continue to be the driving force behind the company.
