{"id":9158,"date":"2024-12-06T13:06:11","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T13:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northamericanmining.com\/?p=9158"},"modified":"2024-12-06T13:07:11","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T13:07:11","slug":"all-in-the-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northamericanmining.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/06\/all-in-the-family\/","title":{"rendered":"All in the family"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NAM<\/strong> talks with the family behind Cincinnati Mine Machinery about its history, operations, staying power and future outlook. Read more about the Stenger family, their commitment to remain American made, and CMM\u2019s role in mining\u2019s resilience moving forward.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edited by Donna Schmidt<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n

It\u2019s an enviable milestone to reach 100 years in business. Cincinnati Mine Machinery did just that in 2024. What began with Edwin Stenger in the 1920s is now privately owned and operated by the third and fourth generations of the family in the place where it began: Cincinnati, Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bob Stenger, Sr., Bobby Stenger and Anthony Stenger are now president and CEO, sales and marketing director, and operations manager and treasurer, respectively. They are each proud of the incredible accomplishment and call their partnerships with the industry the key to their longevity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NAM: <\/em>Thanks so much for sitting down at this important time to talk to North American Mining. What can you tell me about the company\u2019s history that perhaps folks don\u2019t already know? What has brought all of you into today?<\/mark><\/strong>
Stenger, Sr.:<\/strong> I come from a family of 10 kids, and I\u2019m the fourth oldest. I joined the Coast Guard Reserves after my freshman year of college. After active duty I came back and all of the family\u2019s boys started working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have another company, Queen City, a steel treating company that my grandfather started in 1922, and my dad said, \u201cWell, why don\u2019t you go on over to Cincinnati Mine and learn a little bit about that business?\u201d I personally got started running drill presses and milling machines, and worked my way up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My grandfather was a metallurgical engineer and two years after starting Queen City Steel Treating he purchased Cincinnati Mine Machinery. It was a great fit since everything we make gets heat treated at Queen City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stenger, Jr.:<\/strong> I was born into this company. I started working summers when I was 15 years old. Worked one summer at Queen City to get an idea of that business as well as the struggles and the successes they had there. I then came over to Cincinnati Mine and, when I started college, I started working full time and went to college at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started same as my dad, from the bottom up. Running drill presses, doing odd jobs, and throwing my hat in wherever anybody needed some help. Sales came later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any potential for another generation to come in?<\/mark><\/strong>
Jr.: <\/strong>We\u2019re certainly hoping so. I have a son and a daughter. Tony has two daughters and a son as well. We\u2019d love to be able to push this on to the fifth generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about today? What makes you the proudest of today\u2019s Cincinnati Mine Machinery? Is it the family element?<\/mark><\/strong>
Jr.: <\/strong>I think it\u2019s a lot of things. We have a great reputation for our service and product quality as well. We make a great chain. We\u2019ve got great people that work here as well with low turnover and a lot of legacies, sons and brothers and uncles and grandfathers. It is a testament to this company. We\u2019ve stuck to our guns. For example, during COVID, we had the opportunity to buy steel from China or Mexico, and we weren\u2019t willing to sacrifice our moniker of American made. Supply chain issues were a difficult situation where lead times got pushed out but, four years on, I think it was the right decision for us to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years your presence has grown, also, to include the globe. You still produce domestically, though, correct?<\/mark><\/strong>
Sr.: We make everything here in Cincinnati and ship everywhere around the world. With our South Africa location, which opened in 1998, they sell our product as well as some locally manufactured products that are complementary to our products. We have a distribution warehouse in Australia, too. In all, globally, we have 50 employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think have been the biggest changes that you\u2019ve had to make with your product line over the years? And how do you see that change in going forward?<\/mark><\/strong>
Sr.: <\/strong>One of the big reasons that we\u2019re here after 100 years is because we\u2019ve been able to work with our customers, developing new products as they have problems. We work with them to develop a solution. We\u2019ve actually patented more than 20 of those solutions. Keeping up with new technology and new products, and keeping up with the industry, is a huge reason we\u2019re here today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jr.: <\/strong>I would agree. Something that COVID reminded us was to be very quick to react. Before, if someone needed a chain, we could turn around and ship that chain within a couple days, maybe a week; once COVID happened, those lead times grew exponentially to eight, nine months. That was a very big transition for us to pass on to our customers. That change made everyone, not just us, reevaluate how business was done in this industry. We even rehabbed chains during that time, as some companies had to reevaluate their purchasing practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking forward, what do you see as the company\u2019s role, domestic or globally, in the industry?<\/mark><\/strong>
Jr.: <\/strong>Our business is stronger today than ever; we had a better year this year alone than we\u2019ve ever had. Not only here, but that\u2019s also in Australia, South Africa and India as well. We\u2019re seeing the market in India grow dramatically after nationalizing and selling its mines to private companies. We\u2019re seeing huge increases in our business there. It\u2019s going to be a big market for everybody, I think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We plan to stay on top of product development, as we always do, make changes here and there to improve the life cycles of what we make. Elections and politics always have had some kind of effect on our industry, good and bad, but we\u2019ve been able to weather the storm for as long as I\u2019ve been here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coal mining and mining in general will never go away. People don\u2019t realize how important it is to our daily lives. It might not be as robust as it once was, but it will always be around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sr.: <\/strong>We\u2019re very proud to be a part of this great industry. It\u2019s a small world with the coal industry, and the mining industry in general, but particularly the coal industry. It\u2019s a great group of people \u2013 hard working, dedicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jr.: <\/strong>It is a small community, and the best thing we could do for each and every one of us is look out for each other and have each other\u2019s backs and work towards the future together, everybody included.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAM talks with the family behind Cincinnati Mine Machinery about its history, operations, staying power and future outlook. Read more about the Stenger family, their commitment to remain American made, and CMM\u2019s role in mining\u2019s resilience moving forward. Edited by Donna Schmidt It\u2019s an enviable milestone to reach 100 years in business. Cincinnati Mine Machinery did just that in 2024.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":9162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[3339,1037,613,3476],"coauthors":[1632],"class_list":["post-9158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-cincinnati-mine-machinery","tag-coal-industry","tag-mining-industry","tag-queen-city-steel-treating"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t