Standley Batch marks 75 years in business, 70 in concrete

72-FF-HQ-400A key player in design and fabrication of material handling systems for the concrete industry, plus bagging and frac sand plant equipment, Missouri-based Standley Batch Systems, Inc. marks a milestone anniversary in 2015.

Founder Elmer Standley launched Standley & Co. in 1940 as a St. Louis builder of steel crates used to ship large rock crushers to China. During World War II, the company assisted the war effort by building crates for generators delivered overseas, while also manufacturing milk coolers for the dairy industry.

In 1945, Standley & Co. entered concrete, with charter batch equipment deliveries including the Guth Brothers Block plant in Cape Girardeau, Mo., about an 72-FF-Guth-300hour down the Mississippi River from St. Louis. Elmer Standley relocated operations to Cape Girardeau, adding to his concrete plant roster batch equipment for Kasten Block. Around 1960, the business became Standley Bin & Conveyor, moving to its present Cape Girardeau location along the Mississippi.

Into the 1980s, the company emerged among the more innovative equipment sources in concrete production equipment. Plant Manager Ted Holzum pioneered a system that automatically dispersed color into the concrete mixer within one hundredth of a pound accuracy, making manual pigment dosing obsolete.

72-FF-Cape-232In 1989, Richard Griffith purchased the business and changed the name to Standley Batch Systems, Inc. The company continued to grow by acquiring more land and boosting capacity. In 2000, long-time employees Shapley Hunter and Sally Strickland joined Holzum in acquiring the business. Standley Batch continues to grow, now employing 50 skilled craftsmen and engineers.

“It’s an honor to have been here for more than half of those 75 years and see the innovation and growth within Standley Batch and the way it continues to impact the material handling industry,” says Holzum, president and principal.
Standley Batch supplies customized equipment and underscores the fact it has never built two identical plants; all are designed to meet specific customer needs and placement within existing or greenfield sites.