Re-energizing the recycling market: innovative NEXGEN balers re-write the cost-efficiency rulebook for baling operations.

In early 2002, the Marathon leadership team made a series of bold decisions committing it to becoming a leader in the manufacturing of recycling machinery. "We wanted to revolutionize the recycling industry the way we had the waste industry," says Marathon President Gordon Shaw.

Since its founding in 1967, Marathon Equipment Co. of Vernon, Ala., has been a market leader in the production and sale of compacting equipment used by the solid waste industry and in other applications. The company started building vertical balers in 1989.

Marathon's acquisition by holding company Dover Industries in 1990 helped provide it with the investment capital to begin manufacturing balers for the recycling industry in 1992. The company's vertical and horizontal balers have gained wide acceptance among recyclers since that time.

The birth of NEXGEN Baling Systems has meant much more than putting a new name on old products. Models carrying the NEXGEN name have been redesigned with today's recycling market in mind. "The level of engineering, sales and service resources dedicated to the NEXGEN line demonstrates our total commitment to the success of NEXGEN now and in the future," says Marathon Vice President of Sales Bill Wilkerson.

Among the key steps taken by Marathon, beyond re-branding its baling and recycling equipment with a new name, was to bring on board a respected industry veteran to lead its strategic push into the recycling market.

In 2003, Marathon hired recycling industry veteran Joe Szany as Director of Sales to help spearhead its reenergized efforts in the baling and recycling market.

Throughout 2003, Szany met with Wilkerson and other company executives and engineers to focus on strategy and, ultimately, to decide that the new generation of recycling equipment should be branded with a new name: NEXGEN.

When he started at Marathon, Szany knew what his first task would be: "My job is to respond to the market by listening to the customer. Customers buy what they want, not necessarily what manufacturers market."

Szany's years of listening to baler owners and operators were poured into the redesign efforts at NEXGEN. Szany conferred with engineers and designers--who had moved into manufacturing space dedicated exclusively to NEXGEN.

The result is a line of equipment that delivers what is most important to recyclers--machines that bring high productivity at a low operating cost. "NEXGEN balers save their owners money in several operational aspects," states Szany. "We could have made 'me too' balers and put a new brand name on them, but that isn't how excellence is achieved."

Rather, says Shaw, the company follows the benchmarks set by manufacturers like Toyota, Dell and GE, who combine innovation and efficiency. He calls upon the words of hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky, who stated that the key to success in his profession is to skate to where the puck is going, not where it is.

"The NEXGEN name correctly implies that we're always working on the next generation of baler technology that will be used to bring success to our customers," states Shaw.