Building Custom Solutions With L.L. Klink
April 5, 2018 For the past 80 years since it was founded, L.L. Klink has had a reputation within the industry as one of the go-to greenhouse building contractors to call when you need a range constructed, if your structures require maintenance, or if there is a weather emergency that requires a repair. Today, it is still that company, but it also offers much more.
“Our goal is to take a consultative approach,” says Shawn Brown, Owner of L.L. Klink Greenhouse Solutions. “We’re going to dig in and find out what the most important things are that you’re trying to accomplish, and then drill down to the nuts and bolts of how your greenhouse is oriented, where it is, what you’re trying to grow, what equipment you like to use, and get as much information as we can to learn about your needs, and then build that customized solution.”
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Vertical Integration Allows for More Customer Contact
Here are the three companies that make up L.L. Klink Greenhouse Solutions:
- Consolidated Greenhouse Solutions (CGS) specializes in the comprehensive design of greenhouse structures, equipment, and environmental control systems. It works to evaluate client needs and requirements to select and design an integrated and efficient greenhouse solution.
- L.L. Klink (LLK) is the original construction, maintenance, and emergency repair business of the group, but its partnership approach has developed the company’s larger role in working with growers and researchers in the commercial, institutional, and cannabis greenhouse industries, to identify their needs and implement solutions for functional and efficient greenhouse structures. Based in Strongsville, OH, and with many clients around the country, the company will self-perform as much of the construction as possible, but it also works with growers’ local or preferred general contractors to manage and complete a project.
- Midwest Greenhouse Supply (MGS) has serviced the greenhouse industry nationwide for several years by sourcing and providing equipment solutions including greenhouse structures, glazing, irrigation, lighting, and environmental controls, among others.
Through this full-service approach, L.L. Klink can self-perform the design, supply, and build of a greenhouse or range. Its customers can work with all three companies or just one, depending on their needs.
Due to the company’s unique position, working with a number of different greenhouse manufacturers, it is able to take on an objective advisory role, to provide a custom solution that will work for their needs.
“Right now we are building a Cravo, a Rough Brothers, a VanWingerden gutter connected range, a Westbrook gutter connected range, a GGS hoophouse, and rebuilding a refurbished Nexus,” Brown says. “Working with different manufacturers gives us a good diversity of the ability to build and repair. We want to work with the manufacturers that give us the best pricing, but also the best value for the customer. We also have relationships with all of the same equipment vendors that the manufacturers do, whether it’s lighting, fans, benching, rack and pinion, motors, or shade curtains. We are a one-stop shop.”
L.L. Klink Offers Value Engineering and Insurance Services
Brown says the company applies the good-better-best model when it comes to price, recognizing growers’ wants and needs, and working them to offer a solution that will work with their budget.
“We listen to the economics,” Brown says. “Our customers come to us and say, ‘We want this, but we can’t afford this.’ And then we say, ‘Okay, here’s a good solution, here’s a better solution, and here’s the best solution,’ and we match those options with the customer’s economics. That’s a challenge we call value engineering, and we try to give them the best product we can for the money.”
Through its LLK arm, the company provides help to growers working with insurance companies in the aftermath of an emergency that causes damage to greenhouse structures. While it can’t prevent disasters from happening, L.L. Klink has been working with its customers to more proactively mitigate damage from fire, bad weather, and other disasters.
“We’ve seen a decrease in emergency repairs, because insurance is getting more selective and growers are paying better attention and building better greenhouses,” Brown says. “When they do have an incident, we try to snap into action to shore up structures, provide temporary cover — anything we can do to minimize future damage, and get them back up and producing. We really lean on the insurance companies to allow us to mitigate losses as fast as possible, to ensure growers don’t lose income, or customers, after an emergency.”
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