Business View Magazine Apr-2023

54 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 4 CONKLIN COMPANY AYINGON OP YEAR ER YEAR t all started in 1969 in the garage of Harry Conklin, when he and his two sons began manufacturing and selling innovative vehicle lubricants. Fast forward to today, the Conklin Company still has a successful lubricant division, along with five other product divisions, and thousands of independent distributors throughout the United States. From the beginning, Conklin Company has been committed to the manufacturing and distribution of top-quality goods, and that is one thing that has not changed. With more than 130 products, the company’s product divisions encompass the areas of Agronomics, Animal Microbials, Health and Home, Roofing Systems, and Vehicle Products. Charles W. Herbster, a fifth-generation farmer and rancher from southeast Nebraska is the current Owner, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Conklin Company. He shares, “My wife, Judy, and I purchased the company in 1992 from the Conklin family. We are a direct sales company with a nationwide network of about 11,000 independent distributors across the United States. We are blessed to have a lot of young people in our company, which I would say is one of the number one driving forces for our recent growth. In the last four years, we’ve grown sales from $75 million to $154 million, and I remind people in that four-year period, three of those years were during the worst pandemic that we’ve had in this country since my grandmother lived through the Spanish flu. So, to have that kind of recent growth is pretty amazing.” American-made and American-owned is another source of pride for Herbster. Conklin Company manufactures 82% of the products that it distributes, and that enables the company to stay I Long-established and highly respected, Conklin remains an industry leader with proven innovation