25 YEARS AND GOING STRONG
A humble beginning is an understatement. 25 years ago, with a desk and a file cabinet, Paul Cochran started Solid Waste Systems on May 9th, 1990.
In the beginning, his product line consisted of compactors and vertical balers. Paul was a one-man operation. He not only sold the compactors, he installed them as well.
After the first year of steady growth, he hired a technician. A year later, with continued growth, he was able to hire a part-time office manager, a sales person and another service technician. Tracy Ball was the first full-time office manager and she is still with the company today after 23 years! She is now the Controller for SWS. Bob Eldevik, the first salesman, was instrumental in the growth of SWS. He stayed with the company until his retirement in 2007. Jeff Mattes was one of the first technicians to help Paul out that first year and he was hired a few years later. He has been with SWS for almost 20 years! Bob Peterson was one of the first technicians hired and he has been with SWS 22 years.
In 1994, after a few years of leasing a couple different locations, a four-acre facility was purchased in order to handle future growth and it continues to be the main location of SWS.
In January of 2000, Paul expanded the product line to include Leach refuse bodies. This is when Dave Crossley joined the team to sell refuse bodies in Western Washington and Jim Forney also joined SWS as an experienced Leach Technician.
2009 was a turning point for SWS. The decision was made to expand into street sweepers, sewer equipment and multiple lines of refuse bodies. This was a bold move at the lowest point of the US recession. The goal was to market the SWS name in these new industries by the time the recession ended. As SWS’s reputation started spreading, the economy was picking up and the gamble had paid off.
In 2011, in order to better serve an ever-growing customer population in Western Washington, the Tacoma location was added.
SWS has grown tremendously from its humble beginnings. We have 38 employees, ten of those we have hired in the past year. We presently sell, service and rent; street, waste and sewer equipment in Washington, Idaho and Montana. We also sell and service various national accounts.
SWS is thankful to its employees both past and present. We would not be where we are today without our valuable staff, vendors and consultants. We are proud to say we have three employees that have been with the company over twenty years and five whom have been with SWS almost fifteen years.
To sum up Paul’s feelings about SWS, he quotes “We have a really great customer following and our employees are the business (SWS). Our vendors allow us to do great things with their products and we are all moving forward together.”
When asked to reflect over the last twenty-five years, Paul states “If given the chance, I wouldn’t change anything in the last twenty-five years. It has been a great opportunity to create many strong relationships and have fun doing it!”