1 minute read
Bartlett Grain, Watco Have Grown in Tandem
by OneWatco
Anyone reflecting on the numerous customers that are part of Watco’s four-decade business history would conclude there is no one “best” or “top” customer. But one company that can be regarded as an example of Watco’s customer-first approach, and as a customer that has grown together with Watco over the years, is Bartlett Grain.
Bartlett Grain is a provider of grain, milling, and feed products and services. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, the 116-year-old business has 23 grain and milling facilities across the U.S. and Mexico.
Watco’s association with Bartlett started in the late 1980s when Watco formed its first short line, the South East Kansas Railroad (SEKR). The line allowed Independent Mills (now Bartlett Milling), in Coffeyville, to consolidate rail shipments from three Class I railroads to one short line. The SEKR provided more timely switching and simplified the mill’s operations.
“This was a flour mill that brought in rail cars of wheat and made it into flour,” recalls Kirk Hawley, who at the time called on the mill in a sales capacity. “This flour was packaged in 90-pound bags and stacked in boxcars by hand and shipped to the Gulf, then loaded into ocean-going vessels, which were bound for all over the world.”
Watco immediately began building a relationship with Independent Mills, which was conveniently located next door to the Watco office in Coffeyville. The SEKR eventually became a part of today’s South Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad (SKOL), and the mill today remains a very active Watco customer on the SKOL, with the flour now going to domestic markets in bulk. The Watco-Bartlett Grain relationship would evolve over the years as the companies grew together.
“We had daily discussions with Bartlett operations to ensure service was meeting expectations,” says Hawley. “We would meet several times per year and make sure we were doing what Bartlett needed us to do.”
It’s impossible to confine a 33-year business relationship to a newsletter article, but a few examples illustrate the longstanding alliance:
• The 1990 formation of the SKOL gave the Coffeyville mill access to Class I railroads UP, BNSF, and KCS (now CPKC), allowing the mill to reach new markets more competitively and improving railcar supply.
• Depending on the type of flour being produced at a mill, different grades of wheat are needed. To add efficiencies to Bartlett milling operations in the early 1990s, Watco worked with Bartlett on a system of staging inbound wheat railcars and testing this wheat while it was in the cars. Soon, Watco would originate 95% of the inbound wheat railed into the Coffeyville mill.
• Watco worked with the state of Kansas on the 2001 purchase of what is now Watco’s Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad (KO). Moving grain to the Coffeyville mill on two Watco railroads now – not only the SKOL but also from eastern Colorado on the KO – provided efficiencies and value to both Bartlett and Watco.
• By 2003, Watco had begun supplying most of the covered hopper grain cars needed to move inbound wheat off the KO. Watco would also work with Bartlett to provide rail cars for inbound wheat and outbound flour when the Class I carriers didn’t have a sufficient supply of cars.
• In 2015, Bartlett built a grain shuttle loading facility east of Great Bend, Kansas, on the KO. Over time, the site became hampered by congestion. To help resolve the issue, the state of Kansas and Watco helped fund an expansion. Not only that, but Watco civil engineers designed the track buildout, and a Watco project manager oversaw construction, which began in October 2021. Five new storage tracks doubled capacity from 112 car spots to 224, and a new lead and bypass track were also installed to facilitate car movement. Construction was completed in April 2022.
“This is a one-of-a-kind relationship between shipper and service provider,” says Casey Harbour, sales director for the SKOL and KO. “We formed a great relationship that has worked for years and continues to work well today.”
Nowadays, Watco directly serves five Bartlett facilities in Kansas. Before long, Watco’s SKOL will serve Bartlett’s new soybean processing facility outside Cherryvale, Kansas. Construction is under way at the $375 million plant.
Joe Griffith, senior vice president at Bartlett Grain, says “There has been a long history of trust and reliance” between Bartlett and Watco. “We know the culture and people that stand behind the name and service Watco represents. Given the customer-first approach by Watco, we trust our investments on their network of infrastructure will be given the best opportunity to establish a foothold and create a sustainable position in the marketplace.”
