Work Truck Maker Stellar Industries Celebrates 30 Years in Business
Stellar Industries Inc. celebrated its 30th anniversary on Saturday, May 9, recognizing three decades of work truck innovation designed to power customer productivity.
Stellar was founded in 1990 in Garner, Iowa, by three ambitious entrepreneurs: Francis Zrostlik, Jim Vlaanderen, and Gary Bomstad. Stellar began as the first U.S. corporation to design and manufacture a domestic hydraulic hooklift hoist.
Since its inception, Stellar has added the design and manufacture of numerous products for construction, waste, mining, and many more work truck industries. Other products include mechanics’ trucks, service cranes, mobile drawer systems, commercial tire service trucks, lube systems and fuel trailers.
Through the participation in association-sponsored events, hosting equipment training classes, leading product design, and valuing customer partnership, Stellar has become a well-known name within the industries it serves. From a small-town company with big dreams to a big-time manufacturer with grass-roots values, Stellar is proud to be a leader in innovation and industry standards after 30 years.
Although they have not been able to gather in celebration this year, Stellar Industries employees spent the week celebrating with their team and community through videos, photos, and trivia on their social media channels.
“Stellar Industries is proud to have been founded as an entrepreneurial start-up using the know-how of dedicated North Iowans to build the strong company that exists today,” said Dave Zrostlik, president of Stellar Industries. “Our transition to a majority ESOP company over these 30 years is further proof of the commitment we have to remain an independent company that quickly responds to the needs of our customers, our employees, and our communities.
“I have great confidence and pride in the team members that have grown with us to create the successful company that Stellar Industries has become. Thanks go out to all those past and present Stellar employees and the communities that have supported us over the past 30 years. I am looking forward to successful growth and prosperity for the employee-owners of Stellar Industries for the next 30 years.”
For more information on Stellar Industries, visit www.stellarindustries.com.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.