I didn’t plan on spending 13 years in seed processing equipment and technical service. Looking back, it’s been one of the most rewarding parts of my career.
Prior to this, I spent more than 20 years working in engineered fall protection and confined space safety, building custom solutions and support structures. It had nothing to do directly with agriculture, but taught me that making things work for the customer is an art form that only comes with experience.
When I started with Nexeed, our team was small. Today, everything is bigger — more seed cleaning systems, more customers, more machines, and more demand for fast, dependable support. We’ve expanded into a new facility, increased warehousing capacity, and brought more receiving and inventory management in-house as we continue to bring equipment and parts in from Europe.
One of the biggest changes I’ve seen is the growth of our technical services. Seed processing plants expect more than equipment — they need training, commissioning, troubleshooting, and parts availability that keeps downtime to a minimum. That’s especially true with optical sorting technology, where software and electronics evolve quickly.
Thirteen years ago we were supporting one main model of colour sorter. Now we’re supporting multiple generations of machines, each with different components and upgrades, which makes parts planning more complex.
But the fundamentals haven’t changed. Whether it’s a mechanical issue or a technology challenge, customers want one thing: reliable answers and reliable service. You can’t always avoid problems, but how you respond when something goes wrong says everything about who you are as a company.
A typical day? I come in with a plan, open my email, and the plan changes instantly. Priorities shift fast because customers need parts and solutions now. Sometimes that means starting earlier to align with factory time zones, and sometimes it means taking a call on a weekend if I can help someone get running again.
Heck, I’ve made a habit of checking my email before even getting out of bed in the morning. That might seem extreme to some, but to me it’s a necessary part of ensuring good response time and staying a step ahead of what’s happening on any given day.
That’s what service means to me — and it’s what we’ve built our reputation on.
