Harris Fabrication
Photos by MIRANDA CHAVEZ-HAZIM
Like so many of the greatest entrepreneurial stories of the past half-century, the story of Harris Fabrication began in a garage when founder and president Andy Harris made the decision to take his fate into his own hands.
Andy didn’t know it yet, but the solo gigs he was taking on at that time in late 2010 and early 2011 — mostly metalworking jobs for farmers and some offloading work for a few companies out of Sabetha — were laying the groundwork for what would become one of Shawnee County’s premier manufacturing companies.
Within just a couple of short years, Andy Harris recognized that his business was beginning to grow and that perhaps his solo venture could evolve into something much more. It was time, Harris decided in 2013, to find some business partners.
FROM SOLO TO PARTNERS
Enter Brian Green and Rodney Jenkins.
Rodney joined to run the financial side and a few months later Brian joined as an investor.
“Prior to this, I was an insurance agent for 18 years,” shared Rodney Jenkins, co-owner and Business Manager. “Andy’s parents were customers of mine, and Andy eventually became a customer of mine. One day, Andy approached me and said ‘I’ve got this opportunity. I can handle the business side and the building, but I don’t want to do the financials or bookkeeping,’ so we partnered up there.”
Keeping with the traditional “garage startup” humble beginnings, the founding documents for the company were initially drafted on the back of a napkin.
“We met at Gambino’s in Auburn and drew everything up on a napkin,” Jenkins recalled. “Then Brian Green and I were heading to a Royals Game. I was talking to him about what we were doing and he was interested, so he became a partner shortly after that.”
Around the same time, Harris moved his base of operations to a shop that would give him and the business some room to grow.
“When I partnered with Rodney, I was operating out of a shop in Auburn,” Harris recalled. “It was an old barn with a dirt floor. At that time, I was still fixing farm equipment like manure spreaders, tractors, welders, things of that nature. I was trying to figure out what else I could do to make money.”
It wouldn’t take long to get his answer. The newly formed partnership proved to be a catalyst for growth, and within two years, Harris was in need of an even larger shop.
DIVERSIFIED SERVICES
“We started welding fuel filler necks for a company out of Oklahoma. I was doing a lot of them each month,” said Harris. “That’s when my shop in Auburn became too small, so we moved to 125 N. Kansas Ave. We operated there for a while. That building was about 7,000 square feet, although only about 3,000 of it was usable.”
Still, the additional space allowed for Harris and Jenkins to invest in additional equipment and for the first time, hire staff. Once that happened, the pace of growth accelerated.
“We figured out pretty quickly that tracking people down for money and chasing pennies wasn’t what we wanted to do with our business. So we switched our business in 2014 and started offload welding and creating our own parts,” Harris said. “We hired our first employee in that 125 N. Kansas building. Eventually we hired three employees before we outgrew it.
“Once we figured out that place was going to be too small, we bought a building at 2520 N. Kansas Ave,” Harris continued. “It’s a 40,000-square-foot building on 10 acres. We were happy to find property with land so that we could grow if we needed to. It’s been very busy since we moved in here.”
FUNDS FOR GROWTH
Harris Fabrication’s meteoric growth caught the attention of not only customers and community members, but local investors and economic agencies within Topeka and Shawnee County.
“Last year, we won Small Business Manufacturer of the Year for the City of Topeka,” Harris said. “We got nominated again this year, but you can’t win it two years in a row. When we won it last year, it opened up conversations with GO Topeka, who then looped us into a process for getting some additional funding.
When GO Topeka reached out to us, we initially discussed some small business incentives. Because of the amount of money we’re spending and investing in the area, we were a better fit for the traditional JEDO funding incentive, so we moved to that.”
JEDO (Joint Economic Development Organization) is a local board composed of Shawnee County Commissioners, the City of Topeka Mayor and Deputy Mayor, and Topeka City Council members. JEDO’s purpose is to identify and support opportunities for economic growth within Topeka and Shawnee County.
In the case of Harris Fabrication, JEDO is providing up to $190,000 in incentive funding.
“The JEDO incentive is a five-year plan, which started on December 14, 2022. The incentive funds we receive are prorated based on our performance against the different incentive goals they’ve laid out,” Jenkins explained. “For example, if we hire 50 people, we’ll get incentive funds based on hiring that many people. If we were to only hire 40 people, we’d get incentive funds based on that number. In other words, it’s not all or nothing.”
Harris and Jenkins are both looking forward to the substantial impact this incentive funding will make and the opportunities it will open up. The majority of the incentive funding will go toward hiring and overall new job creation, but it will also provide the company with some supplemental support in its marketing, staff training, and equipment procurement.
“One thing we learned through this is that we are considered a preferred manufacturer in the county. We’re manufacturing for people outside the city, which means it’s outside money coming into the county, rather than just churning existing money within the county,” Jenkins said. “When you’re a preferred manufacturer, you are eligible for more incentive funds.”
The partners are excited to promote that nugget of knowledge, along with the JEDO partnership, in their recruiting as they continue staffing expansion. Concurrently, the business is opening a new facility at their location. Designed by Falk Architects and engineered by TGB Group, the new facility will effectively double the amount of production space available to the business. Team members can look forward to having plenty of space and state-of-the-art equipment with which to practice their craft.
Finding the right people has been a key driver to the company’s success, Jenkins and Harris said. With this additional investment from JEDO, they’re positioned better than ever to do just that.
