By Tim Little
If the general manager at the newly opened Run Right Power Equipment small engine sales and repair store in Harmony looks familiar, you may recall him from his previous place of employment across the street and up the block at Kingsley Mercantile. Roger Holdeman, who managed the small engine repair shop at Kingsley for six years, has branched off from Kingsley and is now in charge of Run Right.
Quentin and Glen Unruh, Holdeman’s sons-in-law, are the principal owners of Run Right. Holdeman and Randy Unruh, father of Quentin and Glen, are minor partners in the company. Quentin and Glen are also owners of Q & M Insulation in Riceville, Iowa. Speaking about his reasons for purchasing the small engine repair business from Kingsley Mercantile, Quentin Unruh stated: “Even though we don’t know much about small engines, I wanted to provide a needed service to the community and also to provide a steady income and opportunity for expansion for my father and father-in-law and hopefully turn it into something that everyone benefits from,” said Quentin. “Roger already had experience in (small engine repair) and it seemed that it was growing to a point that was maybe a little bit more than what Kerry Kingsley wanted to do with his other projects he had going.”
Kerry Kingsley concurred with the Unruh’s understanding of the reasons for divesting the Mercantile’s small engine repair business: “Roger came to me and said that he and his sons-in-law would be interested in buying (the small engine repair department). “Jane and I,” Kingsley said, referring to his wife and partner in their retail business, “talked it over and decided that maybe that’s something we’d be willing to let go. It took a lot of our time and I didn’t enjoy that part of the business that much. I’m not a small engine guy at all,” said Kingsley. “The reason we got into (the small engine repair business) was number one, we were being asked by customers to work on stuff. Then we got into the Husqvarna line, so the business grew more. When Roger first came to work for us, he started getting loggers in for more of the professional line of Husqvarna and he grew the business even more. Really, it was probably more than what I wanted,” Kingsley said. “The other reason we decided to sell is the growth of our plumbing, heating and appliances business. This (divestiture) will allow us to give more attention to that. We will be adding on to our appliance showroom and making that a bigger part of our business. We just don’t have the room to show everything that we would like to show. In time that is the goal, to turn that (small engine) shop area into more showroom space.”
Keeping the business in Harmony was also important to Kingsley. “It’s a real service to the town to have a small engine business. When we sold, it we definitely wanted to keep it in town because of all our customers we had sold equipment to and just the need for it in town. They (Unruh brothers) said they were definitely going to keep it in town, “ said Kingsley.
Kingsley sold all the parts and equipment from the small engine business to the Run Right partners. He also agreed that the Mercantile would no longer do any small engine repair and it would direct everybody who requested small engine service to Run Right. Kingsley also noted that the Mercantile will no longer carry the Husqvarna lawn mower and chainsaw equipment line. “The extent of our small engine business now might be a Black and Decker electric trimmer,” Kingsley noted.
The Unruh brothers partially financed the purchase of Run Right with a $25,000 loan from the Harmony Economic Development Authority (EDA) and chose the old Conoco service station site at 235 Main Avenue for their business because of its highly visible location on Highway 52. In addition, “Tom Severson of Severson Oil Company offered us nice terms with a lease and the option to buy,” stated Quentin Unruh.
The service team at Run Right will include Holdeman and Randy Unruh full-time, and occasionally Glen and Quentin Unruh. Holdeman’s wife Cathy will help out from time to time as well. “I have a somewhat flexible workforce,” said Holdeman. “Also, I’m not limited on hours. I don’t plan on overdoing it, but I think I’ll be averaging at least 10 hours (a day).” Run Right will be open Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday 8 a.m. to noon.
While the Unruh’s are the principal owners of Run Right, Holdeman, the primary face of Kingsley Mercantile’s small engine repair service for several years, is the principal mechanic of the new Run Right small engine repair shop.
Holdeman brings a lifetime of small engine repair and logging equipment experience to the position. His on-the-job training started at the age of 12 when he and his family lived in northern California. Between the ages of 12 and 16 Holdeman ran his own commercial mowing business. “I had residential and some commercial accounts, like apartment complexes. I was very busy,” he said. He began his informal education in small engine repair by servicing his own mowers.
Holdeman’s father started a portable saw mill business and Holdeman began to help his father with cutting trees and “getting logs in.” Over time, his father’s logging business grew. “We wandered around the coastal range of the northern California mountains, sawing wood into lumber. It was a carefree existence that didn’t make much money. It was fun, it really was,” he said nostalgically.
Years later, his father sold the business and Holdeman bought a log truck from him. “I ran log trucks for 14 years. Later I was a logger and cut my own wood and even hired two fallers. I was in logging for five years there. Then the spotted owl came,” said Holdeman, referring to the dispute over logging in publicly owned old-growth forests and the attendant threat to the northern spotted owl. “And it cut the amount of loggers by close to three-quarters. We had to competitive bid on everything and the price went to nothing,” Holdeman said with a bitter laugh. “It was a cruel time.”
Around the time of the lumber bust in California, Holdeman learned through a member of the Mennonite church, of which he is a member, that there was a job available at Root River Hardwoods in Preston, Minn. He moved to Preston and worked for the Preston lumber mill for around 12 years. “Later on, with my own equipment I worked for Root River Hardwoods and after that the buyer that was working for them went to a different guy so I followed him. I cut trees and skidded logs for him.” During his time logging, Holdeman developed expertise with engine and equipment repair. “I fixed my log skidders, I worked on the transmissions, overhauled the engines,” he said. Grinning with the thought, Holdeman admitted, “Actually there was a fault in me: when the equipment would break down I was usually happy because I liked to work on my stuff. I should have taken that as an indication that I should have tried to make my living that way. I am extremely picky with details. A good logger doesn’t pay too much attention to the little things, but I did. That attention to detail was not important to logging, but it was good for mechanic work,” Holdeman noted.
While logging, Holdeman severely injured his leg when a tree kicked back into his thigh while sawing. “It pushed me back into the snow about 15 feet. It completely smashed my (thigh) muscle. That shut me down for four months. Though chainsaws had been his life till then, after that accident and a subsequent hand injury,” I could never quite get into hand falling again, Holdeman said. “It was too dangerous for me.”
Holdeman then accepted a position at Kingsley Mercantile. “I’d always had an interest in the lawn mowing end from my youth and I’d dealt with a lot of issues with my saws, of course, in every way, shape and form. I also had a background in hydraulics. I’ve worked on a lot of electrical systems on my equipment,” Holdeman noted. Reflecting on his education in small engine repair, Holdeman recalled a class he took in junior high: “The teacher would many times call on me to explain things when he couldn’t understand it,” Holdeman laughed. “But still, the basics that I learned there, to this very day I remember them. The class taught me how important it is to know why something works,” he said.
Holdeman sees himself taking off exactly from where he left off at the Kingsley Mercantile small engine repair business, providing most of the same services and similar pricing. Some things will change, of course. For example Run Right will expand into some new lines such as the Oregon battery powered tool line and the Husqvarna construction line to service concrete construction customers. Also, the shop has implemented a computerized business management system that will greatly enhance parts inventory and project status tracking. “Right now Randy is in the middle of putting ten million parts away, and trying to get them organized,” Holden noted. In addition, Run Right will manage the fuel pumps in the lot outside the building. Tom Severson continues to own those pumps, but the Run Right partners have the option to buy the fuel business in the future.
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