GMCO Corporation, based in Rifle, Colorado, turns 60 this year, an achievement not many companies reach. “Quite the accomplishment to have this kind of longevity,” says GMCO president, Jeremy Henderson. And the numbers back him up. Statistics show less than 10-percent of companies last 60 years and only a fraction of companies even reach a lifespan of 20 years. What is the secret sauce for this company born on the Western Slope in 1964? Henderson says it is the people, “You’ve got to have good people or the company doesn’t survive.” GMCO started with six employees and now has grown to 112.
GMCO started as a small construction company building communities and then evolved into a Chip and Seal company, paving many of the roads on the western slope. To this day GMCO has evolved into the premier provider of deicing products that cut through snow and ice in the winter and dust control products that eliminate dust on gravel roads in the summer months. GMCO Marketing Director Andree Braun says, “We keep people safe on a regular basis with all the products we sell. Everybody’s family drives, our teachers, first responders, everybody…we protect them as we would protect our own family.”
In addition to providing top notch products and exceptional customer service, the company also partners with their customers by offering training and education. GMCO travels to customers with their “Roads Done Right” classes, teaching participants how to build and maintain gravel roads. They also provide deicing presentations that show how and why GMCO products fight snow and ice and how to use them to achieve the most success. Henderson says, “We offer training and go out with our customers to understand what they are doing and what products they are using” GMCO keeps developing new products and new ways to use existing products in order to keep roads in good shape.
GMCO is based in Rifle and also runs a warehouse in Denver, Colorado. It is the only facility in the state to store granular products indoors, keeping deicers at their highest quality for customers throughout Colorado. The company also uses rail lines to transport liquid and granular products to Washington, Nebraska, Idaho, Texas and parts of Arizona. In recent years, GMCO expanded into the fertilizer business in Nebraska with GMCO Growth Technologies. The company also produces animal nutrition and deicers with their third entity, GMCO Willow Creek, a salt mine based in Salina, Utah.
GMCO’s values have always remained the same, Honesty, Integrity and Commitment since 1964. Here’s to another 60 years!
Joana Canals