CELEBRATING A LEGACY | Topeka Electric Motor Company
By MICHAEL MCGRAW | Photo by JOHN BURNS
A different type of work family is at the heart of Topeka Electric Motor Company at 605 SW Lane St.
“My guys are this business,” said Stan Martindell, owner and self-described runner and business operator. “We’ve grown. We’ve added more space, but it’s our team that is stable and doing work that you really can’t find many people still doing.”
Stan points to his employees who have 30 to 40 years of experience working on rebuilding, rewinding and repairing electric motors. One employee had 48 years of experience, and Stan remembers him as an encyclopedia of knowledge and skill, who was a mentor to so many others before he passed away.
“We look out for each other. We have to work like a team because this kind of work is so skilled and so specific. You can’t teach this in schools,” said Stan as he walked past lathes and presses that enable Topeka Electric Motor to do work that has become rare across the country.
Stan didn’t start out as an electric motor guy. A graduate of the University of Kansas and Washburn Law, Stan served as General Counsel at Fila and later Group Counsel at Payless ShoeSource in Topeka before he found himself unsure of what was going to come next in 2004.
“I’ve had an interesting life,” Stan laughed as he reflected on the change in his day-to-day routine, transitioning from in-house corporate counsel to running an electric motor shop that still proudly displays the old classic lightning bolt sign outside the door, albeit showing the wear of decades of work advertising the business that has been around for 72 years.
“I was talking to a business broker friend of mine, and he told me about this business,” said Stan. “The work we do here, the customers, the employees — it just made sense. The next thing you know, I bought it and have been here since 2004. It’s been a great 19 years.”
For Stan and his team, the business continues to see motors coming through the door because they repair and maintain them, and their customers have recognized the value in investing in that labor and expertise rather than simply buying new ones.
“Sometimes you simply can’t replace these motors,” said Stan. “Sometimes the cost and time it would take to get a new one and what it would require you to change about your building or production line just doesn’t make sense. For some though, it’s simply that they know that machine and they want to stick with the motor they trust and are willing to pay us to keep it going. We take a lot of pride in that.”
Even if it might be viewed as a radical change from the outside to go from corporate law to repairing an Otis Elevator hoist from a downtown Topeka building, there is not a moment where you don’t feel how passionate Stan is about what they are doing.
“We keep a lot of businesses and buildings in the area going,” Stan said. “We may be a small shop of just a handful of guys, but you can’t find anyone else doing work like us unless you go to Kansas City, and then you are going to pay a lot more and it is going to take a lot longer. We aren’t going to let you down.”
Stan said they complete the millwork, rewinding and repairs to the motor shafts and can have it back to the customer running in top form.
“People know that they can come to us for something like a DC motor, which isn’t even a job most repair shops can do anymore,” Stan said. “We care about our customers, and they are with us because of our people.”
The employees at Topeka Electric Motor are also the reason why Stan credits the business as being a leading distributor of CoolBLUE® Inductive Absorbers — a revolutionary change in how electric motors are used in manufacturing and building operations. These absorbers prevent motors from enduring significant damage caused by high-frequency electrical currents, commonly associated with commercial electric motor variable frequency drives.
“At first we scoffed at inductive absorbers because it just wasn’t the industry standards,” said Stan. “But when my guys looked at what they could do and saw that it was real, we jumped in and that was 2015. Now we are the number one distributor in the country and our expert goes all over the country and even Canada to work on these.”
Stan noted they have had to get creative at times. They have taken on small motor projects to help out another shop when there was a medical issue that kept them from helping customers. Stan has had to buy as many bearings and as much grease for the motors as he could because of supply shortages.
“I am here to make sure my guys have what they need,” Stan said.
