Max Jantz began MJE 50 years ago with a single tractor, a determination to succeed, and a love of the land. His children, Aaron Jantz and Heather Jantz, remember a family story where Max came home from working at the co-op and told his dad that he was going to buy a scraper and become a dirt mover. His father said, “Being a dirt mover is one step below a window peeper.” Despite those words of warning, Max started his company, ran the tractor himself, and grew the business.
Now, the company employs more than 250 people — many with MJE for more than 20 years — and owns 350 pieces of heavy civil equipment, including about 50 scrapers, 14 motor graders, several dozers, and an array of other equipment. The majority of the machinery, 85 percent, came from Caterpillar, purchased from Foley Equipment in Dodge City, Kansas. The equipment company, founded in 1940, serves Midwest contractors with 15 locations in Kansas and Missouri.
“Working with Foley, we have been able to get into newer machines,” said Aaron, Co-Owner of the firm. “Dad built a relationship with Foley in the late ‘90s.”
Foley helped his father obtain Cat financing for the new equipment, which enabled MJE to more quickly build up a newer fleet, according to Aaron. MJE also dived into computer-assisted design early, followed by GPS and lasers.
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“We try to stay high on technology,” Aaron said. “We run so much GPS, and our guys rely on it.”
MJE continues to purchase its heavy machinery from Foley Equipment. The company also takes advantage of Foley’s onsite training offerings. MJE encourages employees to continually learn and develop new skills.
“We do not know life without the business,” Heather said. “Our dad was a very hard worker, and he was gone a lot. We missed him but were proud of him for going out and building the business.”
As a young girl, Heather remembers answering the telephone in a polite and professional manner, saying, “Max Jantz Excavating, this is Heather.”
Aaron said that by the time he was 12 years old, he knew how to operate a skid loader and helped on a feed yard job in Guymon, Oklahoma.
“We worked 13-hour days,” Aaron said. “We had to be there at 6 o’clock in the morning and went home at 7 o’clock at night.”
Aaron has operated nearly every type of heavy equipment MJE owns and has worked with every crew in the field. While attending college, he returned in the summers and worked for the company, but after graduation and living in a larger city, the family business tugged at his heart.
“Fighting the traffic, I knew that was not going to be a good fit,” Aaron said. “I thought I knew everything at that point, but there is a lot of stuff that had changed.”
“The core of what we do has not changed,” Aaron said. “We start from the beginning with the design all the way to the end, when we turn it over.”
At any given time, MJE may have 16 or more projects under way. Aaron meets with all of the project managers, surveyors, and the equipment manager each morning to discuss where crews and equipment are needed.
“The good thing about MJE is the collaboration among all of us,” Aaron said. “We talk about the jobs and share ideas. … Communication is key, and that is one thing that the 30-minute meeting every morning accomplishes.”
With diversification came the need to learn new skills. From field workers to the leadership team, everyone has worked together to master those competencies.
“One way our company stands out is we are not afraid of a challenge,” Heather said. “We take a lot of new projects and make it work.”
Recently, in Dodge City, Kansas, MJE moved dirt and built an aerobic lagoon and a 32-foot deep concrete anaerobic digester lagoon, with 2.5-to-1 slopes, a floor, and 5-foot stem walls for the city’s water treatment plant. The crews used a GOMACO slope paver to pave the lagoon. The company completed the first phase of this city wastewater department project in 2002.
“They invited us back to bid, and we are thankful for that,” Heather said.
MJE also has started building a dairy for Blue Sky Farms in Lewis, Kansas. The contractor runs about 20 scrapers daily, excavating the site and moving 30,000 cubic yards per day.
Nearly all of MJE’s agricultural work comes from repeat clients or referrals. Throughout the years, customers have become friends. Max believed in building relationships, so the company does not need to advertise. Crews work in the winter and summer in a 500-mile radius of the home office.
“The pride our guys in the field put in is second to none,” Aaron said. “What we tell the guys in the field is, ‘How we get the next job is how well we do this job.’ Customers will come look at it. If they see we did a good job here, they will want that, too.”
MJE has become involved in a Southwest Kansas vocational program, called Start Here, Stay Here. The company also partners with Dodge City Community College to place welders and other graduates.
“It’s our goal to hire people from Southwest Kansas,” Heather said, explaining that trying to bring people from big cities to a more rural location does not work well.
MJE’s leadership foresees greater use of technology and anticipates a future that includes solar power construction; digester work, capturing gas and putting it back in the gas line; public concrete paving; and other work most companies are not interested in pursuing.
“There are a lot of opportunities out there,” Aaron said. “The management team we have put together is aggressive and not afraid to take more work.”
