History

Stephens Manufacturing was
started in 1957 in the small town of Tompkinsville, KY

Bill Stephens, a local ready mix producer, set out to manufacture his own silo to store bulk cement. He sold one silo after another before finishing one for himself. Bill thought that this might be a good business, and Stephens Manufacturing was formed. The small, family-owned business began building conveyors and aggregate bins to complement the silos and offer a complete Concrete Batch Plant.

Over the years, a full line of dust collectors and ready mix reclaimers were added to give the ready mix producer all the necessary equipment to run an efficient and environmentally sound batch plant. Since our start in 1957, we have had a lot of expansions. The once small building for office and manufacturing has increased to an over 220,000+ sq/ft, state-of-the-art, manufacturing plant. The addition of and constant updates of technology to our drafting dept, machine shop, CNC dept, paint shop, shipping/warehousing and IT dept launched and maintains Stephens as one of the world’s premier manufacturers of Concrete batch plants.

In the early 80’s, Bill’s son Tommy led the company from being known as a lightweight economical plant to one of the heaviest best-built Plants on the market.

Today the company still operates with the small family-owned principles that it started with. Customer Service and a “treat others like you want to be treated” attitude have kept the repeat business. The Stephens’ name and reputation have helped increase our market share each year. The company is still family-owned and operated by Bill’s son, Max (President/CEO).

Today, Max Stephens is leading our company with the same values and business practices as his father and brother used.

I moved into my company’s position of President/CEO due to the untimely death of my brother Tommy. My father,  Bill, started our business near our home in 1957. My mom and dad’s home is still standing near the factory. As a small boy I would play and aggravate my dad’s workers around the plant, however, I was always learning my dad’s ways of treating people, both employees and customers. My older brother, Tommy, was able to work in the factory and drive trucks soon after my dad started the business.

My dad turned the business over to Tommy and me in the mid 80’s as equal partners. We both were already full time employees. Tommy assumed the role of President/CEO and I was Vice President. It was Tommy that eventually talked my dad into attending our first trade show. After that, business and new dealers increased. Tommy led our company to new heights. Stephens lead the industry in working with other companies’ new innovative ideas, ways to speed up plant load trucks, and lastly reclaim and recycle concrete and slurry.

I have tried to carry on our family business as President/CEO since Tommy’s death in March 2004. Keeping my dad’s and Tommy’s ideas and dreams alive, our business has continued to grow with orders from all around the world.

We have purchased more CNC Equipment to improve quality and to speed up production. We have an 18,000 sq/ft building dedicated to parts supply and service. We have also made more updates and improvement to a large portion of our manufacturing facility to capitalize on production space and improve manufacturing flow through the factory. We want Stephens to build the best plant and give the customer, not the cheapest or most expensive, but the best value , The Best Plant for Their Dollar. We want our service to stay at the top; our service has always been second to none.

The Stephens Family desire that our name continue to represent honesty and good family value. A large portion of the people my dad hired are still with the company and a lot of our key employees worked close with Tommy for years. We celebrated our 60th anniversary recently, and the Stephens Family plant to pass on the tradition and business for at least another 60 years.

Sincerely,
Max Stephens