Precision Tank & Equipment: 50 Years Of Growing
October 4, 2015 
David Hemming, President/CEO, Precision Tank & Equipment
Looking out onto the production floor of the fiberglass/stainless steel tank manufacturing facility in Ligonier, IN, David Hemming, president/CEO for Precision Tank & Equipment Co., sees workers moving at a rapid pace. It’s early July and the plant’s grounds are populated with numerous finished tanks waiting to be delivered to customers. And new orders are coming in at a steady clip.
According to Hemming, this level of activity at the Ligonier plant is indicative of that for the entire company in 2015. “If there’s one word that best describes Precision Tank today, it’s growing,” he says. “We’ve done a lot of growing the past five or six years as a company, and I expect that to remain the case for some time to come.”
In part, says Hemming, this growth for Precision Tank ties into the company celebrating its 50th anniversary during 2015. However, the desire to expand goes much deeper, almost back to the ideals on which Precision Tank & Equipment was founded.
“The company was started in 1965 by three gentlemen — Glen Brandt, Larue Jacobs and Tom Sutton,” explains Hemming. “Glen and Larue were frustrated by their inability to get steel tanks for their respective businesses, so they decided to take matters into their own hands and make tanks, for themselves and others.” In short order, the founders had established a tank manufacturing plant in Virginia, IL, and began production.
Coming Aboard In 2004
As for Hemming, he is a relative newcomer to Precision Tank. Growing up on a farm near the Mississippi River, he first worked in the livestock feed, then precision sheet metals businesses. Then, in 2004, Precision Tank & Equipment was looking for an executive to lead the company. “And it just so happened that one of the requirements for this position was for someone with a background in agriculture and sheet metal work,” says Hemming. “So I got the job.”
Precision Tank workers cut out patterns for fiberglass tanks.
For the next few years, Hemming oversaw the company’s existing tank and truck-based manufacturing operations. Then, in the late 2000s, Precision Tank formed a long-term strategy team. The team agreed to expand into the rapidly growing area of fiberglass tank construction. “At the time, there were corrosion issues among customers in the marketplace that had mild steel tanks, particularly across the Eastern Corn Belt states,” he says. “For these companies, replacing mild steel tanks with more durable fiberglass was what they wanted.”
By 2010, the company had opened its 30,000-square-foot plant in Ligonier for building both stainless steel and fiberglass tanks. A second fiberglass/steel tank manufacturing facility in Humboldt, IA, came online in 2014.
With its expansion into fiberglass tanks underway, Hemming and his team looked at adding field-erected tank manufacturing to its line-up. “We’ve discussed this possibility for about four years now,” he says. “Most times, when someone builds a new liquid fertilizer facility, there are often different tanks than just the ones we make needed to complete the order. So it made sense for Precision Tank to try to become a one-stop shop for these customers.”
Initially, says Hemming, Precision Tank thought that A&B Welding Inc. was an ideal fit for this vision. Based in Thompson, IA, A&B Welding not only makes field-erected tanks of up to three million gallons, but installs such services as piping and plumbing as well.
After some early overtures from Precision Tank during 2011, A&B Welding eventually agreed to be acquired by the company this past May. “With the A&B Welding acquisition, we can now serve as a general contractor for customers looking to add liquid fertilizer to their businesses,” says Hemming. “We think this is an excellent complement to our existing business lines.”
2015: An Interesting Year
For the most part, Precision Tank has done the majority of its expansion during what many analysts are calling a “golden age for agriculture.” During the past five to seven years, commodity prices have been at near historic highs and most operators in the ag business have spent their money on all sorts of new products and plant upgrades.
In 2015, however, things have quickly slowed down for the marketplace. As commodity prices have fallen back to pre-2000 levels, growers, ag retailers and others in the agricultural business have curtailed their spending accordingly.
How has Precision Tank done in this environment? “Largely, we’ve held our own,” says Hemming. “I don’t think that it’s surprising that things have slowed down, but we think this will only end up being a temporary blip in the market. We believe the future is strong for liquid fertilizers and chemicals.”
In this spirit, Hemming is already looking ahead to what the coming years will hold for Precision Tank. “Five years from now, I would hope the combination of A&B Welding and Precision Tank will be an integral part of a much larger overall company,” he says. “We want to develop into the kind of company that can offer many kinds of services across many parts of agriculture without too much difficulty.”
Beyond that, he foresees a day when Precision Tank is known outside the agricultural marketplace as well. “In the future, I think we as a company might get involved in the manufacturing of food-grade tanks,” says Hemming. “And that’s the kind of move I’m hopeful will set up Precision Tank & Equipment to be an important company for at least the next 50 years!”
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