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U.S. Jack of Benton Harbor Transitions to New Leadership

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After thirty years in business, Dennis Houseworth still maintains an office in the small industrial complex that houses U.S. Jack Company off of S. Crystal Avenue in Benton Charter Township. He takes tremendous pride in the fact that the company is the last remaining hydraulic jack company in the nation that is 100-percent American made, servicing corporate giants including the likes of Lockheed-Martin, Boeing Aerospace, Oshkosh Trucks, and Snap-on Tool.

As he continues plans to spend more time at a new condo in Florida, Dennis sat down with me last week to tell the fascinating story of U.S. Jack which he and partner Bill Richter founded in 1988 by buying out Auto Specialties Manufacturing’s after-market jack line when that company transitioned largely to a specialty brake shop and evolved into the Ausco brand. He later bought out Richter’s interest in the company in 1996 when Richter moved on to other things.

A devastating fire nearly wiped the company out some 15 years ago, but Houseworth’s dogged determination refused to throw in the towel and shortly after he got operations rebuilt and back underway, he made one of the best decisions of his life by hiring Bob Conrad to take some of the workload off for him. Conrad was brought on as General Manager and has performed “in an exemplary manner for the company” according to Houseworth.

The U.S. Jack workforce of seven or eight hard-working utilitarians have been with the company for many years, just like Conrad. Conrad, however, is nearing his own retirement to pursue his avid bird-watching hobby and Houseworth has transitioned the company’s leadership and ownership to his own son Brad Houseworth.

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Brad graduated the University of Colorado in Boulder, earned his masters at Antioch in New Hampshire, and worked for a while as a city planner for a small Colorado community before answering his father’s call for help about seven years ago and returning home. He had worked summers on U.S. Jack’s assembly line over the years and knew the product line well, so Dennis will move him into the General Manager’s slot.

He also hired a St. Joe and Michigan State University grad, Brian Kissinger who had owned and operated a Lansing area business in fireplace accessories. Kissinger had been looking to return to his hometown and is currently helping his parents in Hartford preparatory to moving back to St. Joe next summer.

Being 100-percent American made, U.S. Jack also utilizes a number of local vendors for services including a Galien paint shop for specialty coatings, a machine shop in South Haven for machining and other key partners.

Brad will be picking up some business management classes at Lake Michigan College to help fill some of the gaps in his skill set, but Houseworth says his transition has been going very well. Dennis will maintain a minority stockholder position, and let Brad and Brian put their mark on the place going forward.

Having purchased the foundry patterns from Auto Specialties, while sometimes cyclical, the jack business has been “a very, very good business,” for Dennis Houseworth, even as he continues to lobby to get his daughter, Lindsay Jovanovic to return home to join the family business. She works for a company in St. Louis, United Industries, as Product Manager. United Industries owns many household names like Ray-O-Vac, Remington and others. She’s been on the team there for more than half a dozen years and keeps reminding her father, “You can’t afford me!” whenever he tries to convince her to return. She’s a graduate of the University of Missouri with a degree in Journalism.

U.S. Jack enjoys a lucrative business with the U.S. military and a number of original equipment manufacturers, producing hydraulic and screw jacks from 3-ton to 30-ton sizes. There are many sizes and styles in between including 5-ton, 8-ton, 12-ton, 20-ton and beyond. As the only American made jack company, Houseworth contends “a lot of companies would be in trouble without U.S. Jack.”

The company complex, comprising several buildings, is located at 1125 Industrial Court off of S. Crystal Avenue in Benton Township. You can learn more and see the complete U.S. Jack catalog line by clicking this link:

http://www.usjack.com/

Shown in the photo accompanying this story on Moody on the Market.com are (from left to right) Brad Houseworth and Brian Kissinger from U.S. Jack.