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| Merrill's Plants
in Iowa |
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| The Merrill Manufacturing Company
was founded in 1949 by Noel Merrill Anderson in a one-car garage
in Iowa. Noel started with his invention of the Merrill Any Flow
Yard Hydrant. The original marketing area was only a few states
surrounding the state of Iowa, using manufacturer’s representatives
as the sales force. In 1957 Merrill relocated and in 1959 Mr. Anderson
designed and engineered the Merrill pitless units, designed to be
used with submersible pumps and eliminate the need of a pump house
or well pit. With another plant expansion, Mr. Anderson invented
the tank float, the front-runner of contained air tanks widely used
today. From those three early products, Merrill has continued to
expand its product offerings and market areas. Merrill has grown
into a large manufacturing, assembly and warehouse facility. |
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| Stephen Anderson, with a degree in engineering
and experience with an engineering firm, moved back to his
home state in 1975 to work in the family business. In 1981,
Stephen became president of the company. Under the leadership
of Stephen, the company has moved forward at a rapid pace.
Like his father, Stephen has designed and engineered many
company products which are widely used and accepted in today’s
market place. Together, father and son hold a total of twenty-two
U.S. patents. |
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| Merrill made its move in 1984 from a
large regional manufacturer, serving approximately 75% of
the U.S. and several areas of Canada, to a national manufacturer
selling its products throughout the entire United States and
Canada plus several foreign countries. At that time, Merrill
added several hundred water well accessories to complement
their manufactured items in order to become a one source supplier
to their national and international distributors. With the
lead issue of the last few years, Merrill has added many new
stainless steel products to the offering for those that truly
want a quality no lead product for their water system. Merrill
has several new product designs in the early production stages
for introduction later in 2008 & 2009, as well as other
current brass products that will be offered in stainless steel
and PVC. |
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| Stephen Anderson, Merrill’s President
says, “Our customer base growth is largely due to the
hard work and dedication of our present day manufacturer representative
sales force that covers the entire country, We also have several
specialty representatives that call on specific customer groups.
Merrill’s very efficient and well-trained customer service
department and in-house sales department handle order entry,
service questions, applications, as well as many other day
to day activities. Merrill also has their own in-house printing
department which is kept busy printing catalogs, pricing booklets
and custom-designed flyers, provided as a no charge service
for their distributors.” |
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| “Merrill manufactures and sells
the industry’s largest selection of frost proof yard
hydrants, pitless units, kits and adapters, well caps, tank
tees, insert fittings as well as one of the largest selections
of other water well accessories in the industry,” continues
Stephen. The company maintains membership in the Water Systems
Council, National Ground Water Association, American Ground
Water Trust and numerous state water well associations. Also,
Stephen Anderson serves on various advisory boards and committees. |
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| Stephen Anderson,
President and Designer Engineer |
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| Customer
Service Area |
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| CNC Machine
Center |
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| Threading
Pitless Casting |
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| Welding Pitless
Units |
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| Hydrant Assembly |
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| “Our goal is to be the best
supplier in the water well industry,” proclaims Stephen. “With
employee dedication and an excellent customer service staff, Merrill
strives to provide every customer with satisfaction plus. We maintain
our product exposure by participating in well over one hundred (100)
product shows each year in the United States and Canada,”
says Stephen. |
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| Merrill’s additional 36,000
square foot facility opened in the spring of 1997. This facility
houses our warehouse, shipping department, and some light assembly.
It has allowed us to continue our growth and reorganize several
departments, giving us the space we need for new product production. |
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| This facility has given Merrill
the much needed space to speed up our shipping times dramatically
and passing our intermediate goal of an average shipping time of
48 hours on our way to our ultimate goal of shipments in 24 hours
or less. |
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| Merrill has also been able to increase
our average order fill ratio to over 98% for the last several years.
This is certainly one of the best fill ratios in the industry, if
not the very best. |
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| With this additional room and the
changes at our production facility, Merrill will be able to provide
our customers with their water well accessory needs far into the
21st century. |
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