¦SPOTLIGHT
Five Questions with KESCO
Biomass Magazine chats with KESCO founder and president Jason Kessler. BMM: Tell us about KESCO—when and why it was founded, and the company mission. J.K.: KESCO was founded in 2001. We are a solution-focused, American company that provides the expertise necessary to design, build and commission bulk material processing systems. Our tailored solutions are designed to satisfy your specific project requirements. We partner with leaders in their respective fields to provide an efficient project experience. Our work is spread across more than 30 wood pelleting plants throughout North America, with seven of these projects being complete plant supply. As for KESCO’s history, in the 1990s, I worked for Bliss Industries, a leading manufacturer of hammer mills, pellet mills and pellet coolers. My primary focus was to develop emerging markets in the wood sector. We found that most opportunities required a complete system rather than individual pieces of equipment, which required that I find quality equipment manufacturers that shared our business philosophy. Customer-first problem solving was a philosophy taught to me by my father, Mark Kessler, who was working with Laidig Systems at the time. I was introduced to Drew Kice with Kice Industries and Justin Koenig with Rapat Corporation, and these three companies shared our philosophy. Along with Bliss, they made up 90% of the systems we were designing. There were tough times economically in 1999 and 2000. I believed in the team we assembled, the systems we designed, and that the renewable energy market was getting ready to take off. I had experience supplying several complete systems with Bliss Industries and found myself with first-hand experience in the wood pelleting industry that very few people in North America had at the time. I created KESCO for three primary reasons. The first is entrepreneurial spirit. I always wanted to have my own business and enjoy the pressure of having the buck stop with me. Second was application knowledge—I could count on one hand the 36 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | ISSUE 1, 2022
