Members of the Logansport Cass County Chamber of Commerce met at the Whallon Machinery facility in Royal Center Thursday for two important reasons. The first was to name the company its member of the month for October, and the second was to celebrate its 50th anniversary in business.

"Being in business over 50 years is not an easy task. We've talked about this before, it's not just you have a great product or you make a great thing for companies, that's one important thing, but that alone will get you not very far, the other thing is people," President of the Logansport/Cass County Chamber of Commerce Bill Cuppy said. "So, a great product and great people, and I've heard stories of one guy's been here 46 years and two months... so that's a great tribute to this company."

Founder Les Whallon started the business in 1974, when he bought the old Royal Center High School building and built the over 40,000-square-foot facility in its place. Whallon had completed his first palletizer 14 years earlier, constructing it in a small machine shop in his garage, according to whallon.com.

"Lots of crazy stories about [Whallon] getting started and... [he] borrowed his neighbor's trailer, this was back before credit cards, drove it out to the West Coast, had a machine on it, didn't have enough gas money to get home so he sold his neighbor's trailer...," president Jeff Tevis said to the chamber. "[He] got home and once the check came in for the machine, he bought his neighbor the trailer back."

Whallon retired in 2000 and his daughter, Leslie Whallon Smith, became president of the company, according to its website. Tevis, who had been working for the company for close to 30 years, then purchased the company in January 2021.

Since its founding, Whallon Machinery has built several palletizing-related products that are sent to companies all over the world, including some big names like General Mills and Kraft-Hines. Their products are used in industries handling a wide variety of items, from cans and cases to adhesives and bathtubs.

After a few words from Cuppy and pictures, Tevis took everyone on a tour of their facility. He walked everyone through their manufacturing process, starting from where materials are dropped off, how it is processed and the end result.

After the product has been manufactured, they ship it to the customer and assemble it. Some years, he said they make between 20 to 25 machines throughout the year, he said.

Tevis said he was very thankful and glad the chamber came by Thursday to recognize them. He described Whallon Machinery as a hidden gem, as they have had CEOs from many companies come by and ambassadors from Spain looking at palletizing olive oil for their olive companies.

"We've got a great base, great employees and we look forward to doing another 50 years," Tevis said.