You might have seen Corey Holland at work around Southwest Michigan. Corey and his ‘mobile welding service truck’. Repairing a piece of agricultural equipment in a farmer’s field. Fixing a broken ladder or railing on a large boat in one of St. Joseph’s marinas. Installing a custom-designed gate or fence section in a residential neighborhood along the Lake. Or delivering fabricated metal components to a manufacturing plant to allow them to meet a critical deadline.
Corey Holland is a new, young entrepreneur, the owner of his own small company that provides solutions to a range of customers, utilizing new high tech, light weight, portable welding and metal-fabrication equipment. Corey sat down with MoodyOnTheMarket.com to tell us about his recent successes, and about his dreams for Independent Mobile Welding, LLC.
Corey is a St. Joseph High School graduate who went on to the Lake Michigan College MTEC program and became a certified welder. Now, with ten years of experience working for others, Holland is nearing the point of going full-time with his own company providing mobile welding services to a wide range of businesses and individuals. With a smile, he tells us that he really has two full-time jobs at this point but looks forward to the time he can devote all his time to Independent Mobile Welding.
Corey loves fixing and repairing things with his welding skills and equipment. And that’s what he does about 80 percent of the time. The other 20 percent is ‘creative work’, turning someone’s imagination—or his own—into what some might call a piece of ‘metal art’ that people might point out or talk about. More on that later!
There’s a good chance your idea—if you even have one—of a mobile welding unit is wrong in today’s world. No massive truck that reminds you of a cement mixer or a giant wrecker. Instead, Independent Mobile Welding serves you from a normal sized pickup truck that can go almost anywhere it’s needed.
Corey explains, “Our onboard generator removes any concerns about available power sources for our portable welder. We’re equipped with saws, squares, gauges, measuring devices, grinding wheels, wire—everything we need to complete a job on-site.”
Thant’s important to the customers of Independent Mobile Welding.
Farmers are one of Corey’s largest business segments. When their equipment breaks down out in a field, he can maneuver right to the site with his small, four-wheel drive pickup, turn on the welder and repair the broken component on the spot, perhaps saving the farmer many hours of downtime for personnel and equipment.
Boaters and marinas also rank high on IMW’s customer list. It seems something is always breaking on a boat. Smaller and medium vessels may have to be pulled or lifted out and transported to an available welder location. Bigger boats, that may not even be possible. For either, Corey is able to simply back into place at the marina to provide a welding solution for a broken ladder, guard rail, or engine component on a boat. He also frequently is called on for welding repairs on infrastructure around several of St. Joseph’s large marinas.
Restaurants (and any business utilizing Stainless Steel) are a specialty area Holland hopes will grow on his customer list. “I love working with stainless steel, both repairs and fabrication of new layouts,” he told us. Shelves, counters, work surfaces, stoves, hoods, deep fryers—almost anything in a restaurant prep area may be made of stainless steel. Corey points out he’s fully prepared to meet all cleanliness and health standards in repairing stainless steel equipment, or in custom-fabricating a new installation. He invites restaurant owners to give him a chance to repair or modify existing stainless steel installations, at considerable savings, before ordering thousands of dollars in new prep area equipment.
Holland is also excited about developing more opportunities to custom-design decorative gates, fences or railings, whether in individual home/residential situations or commercial buildings. He possesses a flair for designing on a computer, and then creating in metal or steel, unique or distinctive yet functional items.
“Show me or tell me your idea,” he says. “We’ll model it on the ‘CNC table’, bounce it back and forth between us to refine it. And when you’re happy, I’ll build it!” Corey loves the process either way, whether someone says “Here, build this”. Or if they say, “Create something for my backyard that I can’t go to Home Depot and buy.” Either way, Corey will make it happen in metal.
A less glamorous but potentially important growth area for Independent Mobile Welding is what Holland calls ‘Light Production Work’. This may not involve mobile service, but instead consists of ‘project work’. For example, a manufacturer assembling light duty trailers may need 200 of a particular metal or welded component each week. Holland invites inquiries of this type from the many small manufacturers around the region.
Corey Holland looks forward to growing his company over the next several decades, starting from its ‘one man band’ roots and his white pickup truck. When he’s not working—which isn’t often these days—he’s a devoted member of the St. Joseph Township Fire Department Station #2. “It’s a multi generation part of my family,” he says of the commitment to the Fire Service. This month, Corey will compete training at the Fire Academy of the Benton Harbor Public Safety Department.
For more information about Independent Mobile Welding or to talk to Corey Holland about projects you may have for him, call or text him at 269-500-1650, or visit his website.
