Gravermoen celebrates 45 years in the scrap business

By Kelsie Hoitomt

DOWNING – Only one person has spent over 40 years at Kadinger’s Auto and Truck Parts Salvage and Recycling and that would be salesman, Denny Gravermoen.

Denny started his career at Kadinger’s on June 1, 1969. He had graduated high school from Glenwood City and then went into the service prior to that.

While in high school, Denny’s mother passed away and he went to live with his sister Hazel and her husband Leo Kadinger.

At that time, Leo’s father Nick was transitioning from buying more scrap and iron and less cows as the current facility once stood as the Kadinger family farm.

So when Denny came back home from the service, Leo hired him at Kadinger’s. At that time, Denny worked along side just four other men- Leo and Dick Kadinger, Jerry Lorenz and Tim Zurn.

The Downing yard itself was roughly the same size in acres as it is today, but the inventory was much smaller.

There were several “junk” yards in the area and throughout the state, but Leo had a vision of being an environmental scrap yard, which meant things like no gas and oil spills.

Those “junk” yards were eventually weeded out and closed down due to the DNR cracking down on environmental regulations, which left Kadinger’s to be a popular go-to place.

When Denny first started however, it was just the core five guys in the office. He cut iron and dismantled vehicles for a bit and then eventually became the delivery man.

At that time, the range of parts delivery was smaller so he spent time traveling to the Grantsburg/Frederic area and maybe Duluth.

He even drove to Red Wing, Minnesota each day to fill in as help when there was a yard there, which was in the late ’90’s, early 2000’s.

But before that, when customers started piling into the office, Jerry couldn’t handle the work load himself so after some time, Denny reluctantly started helping inside at the counter.

Inside the Kadinger’s office, business was run very differently than it is today.

Denny shared that all the parts used to be written on 5×7 index cards and they were put into files that sat on top of the counter.

When a customer or a phone call came in, Denny would have to look the part up in a book, then go to an index card before going out to pull the part either in the yard or in the back of the building.

“There was no such thing as a shipping and receiving department at that time,” said Denny.

That was the process for years until Mike, Leo’s son and Denny’s nephew, decided it was time to move to computers.

Mike and his wife Jodi Kadinger along with Tom and Vicki (Kadinger) Larson were all in the business at that time, which was around 1994-95. On a side note, the children took over the company in 2009.

Safe to say, the change in technology was one that Denny greeted unkindly, but after three months of working with the new system, he was sold.

“I can’t imagine being without it now,” said Denny.

The move to computers was one of the biggest changes Denny saw in his 45 years in the business.

In the transition period, Kadinger’s became a guinea pig for a multi-yard system, in which their computers could tie into the different departments inside the Downing yard as well as in the yards at Barron, Cadott and more recently Solon Springs.

Being a guinea pig meant that Kadinger’s was one of the, if not the very first, businesses to use such a system in the nation – Pinnacle Professional, an Automotive Recycling Software.

Over the years, Denny has sat in his salesman chair or stood at the counter and slowly watched the business his sister and brother-in-law helped grow.

The office expanded, the shipping and receiving department was built, the truck yard was established and the yards grew throughout the area.

Now, parts are delivered to the cities and across the state of Wisconsin and a very extensive eBay account has even been set up as well.

And those five employees have turned into 85 that span across the entire company.

Denny truly enjoys what he does and his deep, raspy voice is recognized and well-respected through the phone line and across the counter.

Denny said he is often asked when he will retire, but “no expiration date has been found on the bottom on his shoe yet”.

“The day I feel I can no longer perform my job adequately will be the day I hang up my hat,” said Denny.