Sand Science is the dealer of Barford, Rico, Kafka and other leading brands.
(CEG photo)
For almost four decades, Gerry Kenny has established his name, and that of his company, Sand Science Inc., as a source among contractors and company owners looking to get quality screening, conveying, crushing and recycling equipment.
From the dealership's location in Beaufort, S.C., along the Interstate 95 corridor, Sand Science has grown from being a local and regional distributor of material handling equipment to one that now serves customers across the United States.
During its entire history, beginning in 1985, Sand Science has offered a full line of new, used and rental equipment to solve a range of applications for its customers.
The makers of those product lines, including Roto-Screen, Revolver and Barford, among others, have found Gerry, along with his two adult sons, Eoin and Adam, vice presidents of marketing/sales, to be experts at solving their material processing problems.
The Roto-Screen company, for one, has been so impressed with Sand Science's efforts on its behalf that it has recently granted the South Carolina distributor with the maker's entire U.S. sales territory, according to Gerry Kenny.
"We have been the top sellers of Roto-Screen machines for many years, and after a change in ownership at the company during the past year, its new management decided that we would be their new master distributor," he said.
Sand Science Solves Problems for Customers
In tandem with its burgeoning national reputation, Gerry Kenny also noted that Sand Science has experienced a growth spurt over the past 10 years coinciding with his sons joining the business.
"I think that is one of the keys to our success and it has also been a tremendous blessing to me personally, and a great resource for Sand Science customers to keep that continuity," he said. "Even during the pandemic, we were able to expand and add new personnel."
Kenny added that another reason Sand Science was able to weather both the coronavirus and the economic recession so well was because of the company's ability to solve material-handling problems for its customers — no matter their location.
"For example, in 2021 we sent a specific conveyor system to Hawaii to solve a problem, along with one of our technicians to install it for the customer," Kenny said. "Another application that comes to mind is because we do an increasing amount of business with the growing biomass industry, meaning wood chips, mulch and wood pellets. There was a large fire last year in a port warehousing facility in southern Georgia where a lot of wood pellets burned. Using our Roto-Screen equipment, the residual sawdust was turned into a useful product after our customer screened all the pieces of metal and trash out of it."
Sand Science also aided one of his local Beaufort customers. In that case, the owner has a permitted incinerator to burn debris, but in the process discovered he was finding lots of soil mixed in with the debris while he was creating a useful ash byproduct from the incinerator. Kenny's company was called in to set up a Roto-Screen for the customer whereby he could screen the soil mix and combine it with his ash to create an amended soil product.
"Another local customer, a garden center in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., recently bought one of our compact Revolver RT508 trommel screens," Kenny said. "They are repeat customers of ours. It allows them to accept rough soil in an opportunistic way, process it, and blend any other material they wish with it to supplement their choice of landscape products."
To be ready at a moment's notice to send trommel screens to wherever they are needed, Sand Science keeps a large supply of them in its yard, located off I-95's Exit 33, in South Carolina's Low Country, just north of Savannah, Ga.
"We always have a lot of machines in stock, including a long line of trommel meshes, probably totaling 200 feet long, as well as another 200-foot-line of spare drums," Kenny said. "We get calls from all over the place, but, having said that, one of the wonderful things about a Roto-Screen is that it uses parts that are freely available. They are U.S. standard parts, and we are quite happy to tell a customer from Wisconsin or Missouri or Louisiana that, ‘Hey, the particular machine bearing you need is this size, and you can go to your local industrial parts store to get one.' We are not out to soak our customers for parts, but we have them in stock, and we are happy to ship them out when necessary."
Jaw Crushers Available at Sand Science
In addition to selling trommel screeners from Roto-Screens and Revolver, plus Kafka feeders and various specialty unloaders and trans loader machines, Sand Science is in the business of supplying a line of Barford-made track jaw crushers/vibrating screeners and stackers to customers. The main Barford model in Kenny's inventory is the powerful 750J, a legal-load track crusher that he said is ideal for contractors and is known for doing an excellent job of recycling concrete.
"We have been in the crushing equipment business just about as long as we have been in operation. But we try to keep it simple with affordable, mid-sized jaw crushers because they are easier and safer for contractors — our main customers base — to use. Specialist machines like impact crushers, shredders and cone crushers are available and dealt with on an ‘as needed' basis."
Focus On Material Handlers, Processors Leads to Success
For his part, Eoin Kenny said he sees Sand Science's key to success as being its specialization in material handling and processing equipment.
"Screening, crushing and conveying equipment is our focus," he said. "We don't sell excavators or dozers. Or goal is to rent or sell you the correct equipment for processing or handling your material and to give you the most affordable solution."
Following their graduation from college, both Eoin and Adam came aboard Sand Science with a fresh perspective, in the process building upon their father's success with the company.
"Adam and I have brought energy to Sand Science, with new technology and development of Sand Science's Internet presence for our core Southeastern marketplace, along with more of a focus on expanding our footprint throughout North America," Eoin said.
"I think the biggest thing we have seen during our time at Sand Science is our national growth," he added. "I have flown across the country to install our systems for new customers in Maryland, Oklahoma, Oregon, Louisiana and the Northeastern states."
With three talented people handling sales now instead of one, Eoin Kenny said they have been able to increase the business from their father's initial footprint 37 years ago.
"Also, the market has changed considerably because for so long it was done only through local dealers," he said. "Now, because of the Internet, customers can reach us from further afield, and we can make them feel confident we are not just an online sales company, but a full-fledged dealership that will back up customers from coast to coast.
"If you buy something from us, someone from Sand Science will come out to show you how to use that machine and teach you everything you need to know about it. Following that, we will remain as a resource for you on both that piece of equipment and others in the future. We are not going to just sell you a machine and leave you to it. Sand Science does business to create long-term relationships and that is why we have been successful at selling equipment all around the country."
For more information, call 843/525-6140 or visit www.sandscience.com. CEG
(Gerry Kenny has also followed in the footsteps of his fellow Irish in that he is a published author under the pen name "Michael Gerard." His third book, a historical novel, is due out in the spring of 2023. You can find him at www.MichaelGerardAuthor.com, and on Amazon Books.)
(All photographs in this article are Copyright 2022 Construction Equipment Guide. All Rights Reserved.)
Eric Olson
A writer and contributing editor for CEG since 2008, Eric Olson has worked in the business for more than 40 years.
Olson grew up in the small town of Lenoir, NC in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where he began covering sports for the local newspaper at age 18. He continued to do that for several other dailies in the area while in college at Appalachian State University. Following his graduation, he moved on to gain experience at two other publications before becoming a real estate and special features writer and editor at the Winston-Salem Journal for 10 years. Since 1999 he has worked as a corporate media liaison and freelance writer, in addition to his time at CEG.
He and his wife, Tara, have been married for 33 years and are the parents of two grown and successful daughters. His hobbies include collecting history books, watching his beloved Green Bay Packers and caring for his three dogs and one cat.
Read more from Eric Olson here.
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