Business View Magazine
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truss business in Kansas supplies primarily localized
projects, though we go as far as Texas and Colorado.
The steel bridges produced in Shakopee are sold na-
tionwide. Our primary business is railroads – building
bridge timbers for repair work. We sell mostly to the
short lines. And we do reach out to the east coast, to
heavy highway contractors, supplying timber bridges
that we manufacture for ERT work, and recreation-type
structures.”
Value Plus
Financially, value-added factors are what feed the
Wheeler revenue stream. Case in point: the treating
plant that produces engineered goods for timber bridg-
es also does in-house engineering of the structures.
Parrett notes, “For the railroad business, we do chalk
drawings. Any product that requires engineering or fab-
rication, where we can add value to a piece of wood, is
a good revenue stream for us. Commodity-type prod-
ucts like crossties, utility poles – there’s really no val-
