1/19/2010 by Richard Thomas

Bruce Bacon got into the scrap recycling and demolition industry in 1991, working for LaBounty Manufacturing in Two Harbors. Shortly thereafter, publicly traded Stanley Works acquired the company.

"If Roy (LaBounty, founder) still owned the company, I'd probably still be there," Bacon said.

For the next six years he continued to work for the LaBounty family in Texas. Then due to unrest in the market, Bacon and friends Kevin Bakke, Curt Frahm and Ken LaBounty, Roy's son, found "a portal that was open for a competitor and we decided to step through it," Bacon said.

In 1997 they founded Genesis Equipment and Manufacturing, a maker of attachments for use in demolition, scrap processing, reconstruction, utility and waste handling operations. The company moved into its present site on Connors Point in Superior in early 1998.

By 2004, Genesis had grown to $30 million in annual revenues, and with a favorable market, the partners sold the company to Northwest Equity Partners. Dover Corp. acquired Genesis two years later, and Bacon stayed on as general manager/president until March 2009 when he launched Exodus Machines, which manufactures large material-handling machines.

"I wanted to take on the opportunity to do another start-up," Bacon said. "I considered acquisitions, considered a lot of different things, but ended up deciding that we would attempt to build a material handler in the United States. There aren't any that are sourced from the U.S.

"It was hard to make that decision because it's a big engineering (project) - it's a mountain. There was a lot of analysis that was done. Is it viable? Is it even possible? Can a start-up company actually enter this market against multi-billion dollar companies? We decided it was possible," he said.

Exodus had the aid of $7.5 million in New Market Tax Credits, a federal program to encourage investment in rural and urban low-income communities. The city of Superior contributed nearly $400,000 for infrastructure and development. Douglas County provided $75,000 from its revolving loan fund. The Northwest Wisconsin Business Development Corp. in Spooner, and Duluth-based Northland Foundation matched the county loan.

Within five years, Exodus expects to create 80 jobs with wages and benefits around $25 per hour.

Exodus machines are designed for the operator's safety and comfort, easy maintenance and high-quality after-sales service. "We actually speak English, kind of an advantage in North America," Bacon said.

The machines use computers to communicate via modem, log data, monitor performance and self-diagnose any malfunctions.

"Very simply, but all too often forgotten, our total philosophy is make life easier for the person who is operating and maintaining and owning this machine," he said.

Opening amid the Great Recession has been a challenge. "I have been around long enough to have been through a few downturns," Bacon said. "It's interesting how repetitive the headlines are, from '74-75, '81-82, '90-91, 2000-2001, and now. This one's deeper and tougher, but you have to believe we'll recover.

"Most businesses basically have said, '2009 is a write-off, it's a waste, we're not going to invest in capital equipment; however on Jan. 1, 2010 we're reopening for business, and we will be investing in capital equipment.' We feel that starting in the first quarter the company will be poised for fairly rapid growth," he said.

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