04/30/2025
This past weekend (April 25-26, 2025), Benner-Nawman Inc. celebrated its 100th anniversary at both its plant location by the Wickenburg airport and at the Flying ~E~ Ranch. The company served lunch at the plant on Friday and a dinner Saturday night at the Flying ~E~ for 120 people. Attendees enjoyed a golf tournament, off road trips into the desert, and shopping in and around Wickenburg. The dinner included special awards and recognition of the history of Benner-Nawman Inc.
Employees both past and present joined together along with some of the company’s manufacturer representatives and product suppliers. The suppliers from Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea came to Wickenburg for the celebration. Benner-Nawman works with twenty-three manufacturers that are in eight different countries besides the United States. Benner-Nawman has its distribution, service center for its products, and its headquarters at its Wickenburg facility where it operates in buildings that have a total of 75,000 square feet.
A Brief History of Benner-Nawman Inc.
The company was founded in 1925 by Gus Benner and Rollie Nawman. It was a partnership that produced sheet metal products and did “re-tinning” of cans from its location in Oakland, California. The partners needed each other to survive…but at some point, it was run as if it was two separate companies.
The Depression of 1929-1939 was the most difficult time for our nation. The banking system collapsed during those years (over 11,000 banks failed, and depositors lost their money). Unemployment reached twenty-five percent by 1933. The nation at that time was mostly agriculture and over one million families lost their farms. It was with sheer will and determination that the Benner-Nawman company survived.
The 1940’s were marked by the Second World War. Benner-Nawman expanded in size to almost fill an entire city block. The company was given a triple “A” rating by the government which meant that they could get all the steel and sheet metal they needed in support of the war efforts. New products like the oil-fired furnace for homes were created. Efforts began to help the food processing industries become more efficient. Sadly, Gus Benner was killed in an auto/train accident while racing to the plant and the company became a sole ownership under Rollie Nawman. After the war ended…sons and sons-in-law returned and joined the company. The company incorporated in 1946 with various members of the Benner and Nawman children becoming shareholders.
The 1950’s were marked by new products for new industries. In 1951, BN created an aluminum/glass phone booth for Pacific Telephone in California. Several new designs were added for public telephones.
New conveyer systems were created for the food processing industries. Products were made for companies like Western Electric and IBM. The sales of home furnaces expanded along the East coast. Machinery was added in support of the growing company. Employment that first declined after the war, was once again expanding as new accounts were added.
The 1960’s brought even more changes. The company created a mechanical tomato harvester. More designs of public telephone booths were created including the new Tri-Panel Booth, plus phone booths for disabled people were developed.
Sadly, major strikes took place involving the four different unions within the business that negatively impacted the company. In 1966, Robert Nawman (son of Rollie Nawman) was made President and in 1967 he decided to shut down the other three divisions of the company and only make products for the public telephone market. An assembly plant was set up in Vandalia, Illinois in 1968 and in Wickenburg, Arizona in 1969.
The 1970’s brought more changes as the sale of public telephone products expanded across the USA and in the growing international market. Jack Keely was put in charge of our sales department. Ed Kientz started a new division called Universal Products Group. Mel Kientz was asked to develop international sales. Don Funk was put in charge of the Illinois plant and Jack Hansell headed our Arizona location with George Croll heading up engineering. Sales that were at $3 Million in 1972 jumped to $6.8 Million by 1977 and $10.4 Million by 1979. Robert B. Kientz became President in 1977.
The 1980’s were a turbulent time for the company. The Bell Telephone system was broken up. There was uncertainty in the communication market. Sales declined by twenty percent. It was in 1980 that Ed Kientz began a relationship with a tool manufacturer in Japan. He first corresponded with them and in 1981 he traveled to Japan for training on their products. This began an amazing relationship with the IKK Tool company that is based in Numasu City, Japan.
This past weekend, BN celebrated with IKK our relationship of 45 years. During that time, we have sold over 100,000 tools from their great company. We started small but soon, we were their largest distributor world-wide. It began with a handshake, a covenant where they would do their best, and BN would do its best. We continue to this day to be IKK’s largest distributor of their products outside of Japan.
The 1980’s brought more changes to Benner-Nawman. We opened a plant in Alberta, Canada to provide public telephone products for both the Vancouver Expo and the Calgary Olympics. William O. McKenna was made President in 1982.
Sadly, our flagship product was copied by a competitor and that got us into a difficult lawsuit in 1986-87 that was settled in our favor. However, the lawsuit was very costly, and it also caused sales to decline by twenty-five percent. The company experienced significant losses.
Edward Kientz was made President in 1987 and growth returned pushing sales from $7.7 M up to $12.4 M by 1989.
The company began a relationship with SK Enterprise based in Taiwan. A trading company recommended them to us for our service boxes and communication termination cabinets. Their ownership attended our celebration, and we celebrated our 39 years of doing business together.
Ed Kientz and Lon Brown returned the company to its roots of manufacturing. The leadership skills of Lon Brown helped develop the manufacturing capabilities. BN started production on phone directory holders and the company sold thousands of units. This helped save the company in 1987.
Next, we purchased a small manufacturing company in Phoenix. We could now make many of our own parts and products. A new product line, standby power enclosures and fuel tanks for generators, were sold to companies and installed across the western states.
In the 1990’s, Jack Keely headed our international team, and we were extremely successful on the international stage. A British company, Cable and Wireless, bought products in Panama, the Caribbean, and Hong Kong. Hundreds of phone enclosures were sold to Jordan and The United Arab Emirates. A huge $30 million contract was signed with Saudi Arabian Telephone, and we ended 1998 at $17 M in sales.
It all came crashing down in 1999. The FCC made a ruling which made the ownership of pay phones very unprofitable. The budgets for our products with domestic phone companies were eliminated and the customer in Saudi Arabia stopped paying our invoices. The closure of our Canadian and Illinois facilities came as a result.
The 21st Century brought new challenges and opportunities. A decision was made in 2000 to move all our operations to Wickenburg, Arizona. We had to make the move if we were to survive. Sales had fallen to just $5M by 2003. Might this be the end of the line for BN???? But wait!
By 2005 we clawed our way back to $9M in sales by focusing on our current line of tools plus adding new items. We could not be profitable with our generator enclosure business segment and had to close it down. Our major office furniture customer became our major competitor through a merger and purchase of production equipment.
In 2008, declining sales and online distributors who offered no service was a frustration. We decided to create our own online store that would represent both our products and other manufacturers. Thus, thanks to Heidi Ross and Eric Ross, Construction Concepts International was born. Matt Smith and Heath Fornoff now head this group for BN. However, a new problem began to arise.
The recession of 2008-2010 hit us hard as seventy percent of our tool market vanished with the large unemployment and housing crash. Over 2 million construction workers lost their jobs. We lost sales to competitors based in China. Things did not look good for the company. We finished the year 2009 with just $3.3 million in sales. NOW…Might This be the end of the line for BN??? But wait!
2010-2020…Out of the Ashes, BN experiences “The Phoenix Effect” once again. We brought on Mike Kucharski in 2010 to help us rebuild our sales. Ed Kientz handled the Western half of the USA and Mike the Eastern half. Several Trips to the Far East were made and new products and other items were created and added to our offerings.
We created our new “BN Products Group” in 2011 to focus on Tools for the professional contractor. It started with a base of just $2.2 million in annual sales and by 2015 we reached $9.5 M in sales. By the end of 2017, we reached $12.6 M, a growth of 280% over six years. In 2018, we promoted Jim Dehnert to replace Mike, and he has been guiding our sales team for the last seven years.
2020 to 2025: We began the decade with a very tough situation as COVID-19 took the nation by storm. This was followed by a complete breakdown at the ports with container ships delayed for weeks and months in their unloading.
Our regional sales team under Jim’s leadership really stepped up. From 2018 to 2022, sales increased from $12.6M up to $22M, an amazing five-year run averaging a growth of almost $1.9 million per year. We are extremely thankful to Wayne Magaha, Graham Evans, and Nick Magobet who are our regional managers.
Finally, I want to recognize the passing of the torch in 2023 to our current leadership team:
Heidi Ross……………CEO
Erik Kientz……………. President
Angela Bowie………...CFO
Jim Dehnert…………...Vice President - Sales
Ed Truxal………………. Marketing
Brian Young…………...Engineering and Plant Operations
Erik Cordova…………. Customer Service Manager
Benner-Nawman is thankful to call Wickenburg its home. We are thankful for those who have worked for us in the past and who are on our staff today. We are planning a second celebration for this fall when many of our manufacturer representatives will be coming to Phoenix for one of our trade shows. We hope more of our former employees will be able to join us for that celebration. Our thanks to our community, our suppliers, our distributors, and to the thousands of contractors who have benefitted from our products. We are truly blessed.
Sincerely,
Edward R. Kientz – Board Chair – Benner-Nawman Inc. and its affiliates
