DispatchtheThe newsletter for Watco Companies, Inc. and Watco Transportation Services, Inc. January 2011, Volume 12, Issue 1

December 2010 brings historic changes to WatcoBy Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

December of 2010 can aptly be called the most historic month in the history of Watco. Three events occurred last month that will forever change the scope of Watco operations starting with Watco winning the long-term rail contract to move Western Australia grain. The second event was the announcement that Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P., will invest up to $150 million over the next year in Watco Companies in exchange for a preferred equity position in the company. Thirdly, Watco became the sole owner of Greens Port Industrial Park. Individually each event would’ve been monumental but to have all three happen within a week’s time frame is simply astounding.

Australian Grain OpportunityIt’s a bit confusing to determine what day Watco went global. On December

13 at 9:30 a.m. in Perth, Australia, the CBH Group was announcing that Watco had been awarded a long-term rail contract to move Western Australia grain. However, in America, many of us were just finishing up our Sunday dinner, as it was 7:30 p.m. Central time on December 12.

Regardless of the time or date, there were many people across both continents who were very excited to hear the news after a year long search process.

“We welcome Watco to Western Australia and have great confidence that their experience and innovative and performance-driven culture will enable us to implement the most efficient grain logistics supply chain for WA growers and their customers and help us to keep the maximum amount of grain on rail,” Dr Andrew Crane, CBH CEO, said.

The CBH Group is a Western Australian farmer owned co-operative that was established in 1933. It’s controlled by more than 4,800 grower-shareholders who plant and harvest grain grown across the 198,840 square miles that comprise the Western Australian grain belt.

In the early part of 2010, CBH decided to offer, for the first time in its 77 year history, its rail service contract for bid and initial discussions between CBH and Watco were held on a cold Chicago day. A rail contractor that had worked with Watco told CBH about Watco’s experience moving grain in Kansas and the two parties met to discuss what CBH needed and expected and whether Watco was interested in pursuing the opportunity.

As part of the selection process, key CBH representatives visited a variety of Australian and international rail operators to review each company’s operations, capabilities and commitment to providing service to the grain growers. Watco locations visited by the Australian representatives were the Boise Valley Rail-road, Coffeyville Mechanical Shop, the Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad and lo-comotive shop, the South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad and Houston’s Greens Port Industrial Park.

Watco will provide rail logistics planning services, including train operations and scheduling, rail-car tracing, car and locomotive maintenance, and inven-tory control. CBH plans to invest $175 million in rolling stock, which would be maintained by Watco Mechanical Services.

“We believe our experience in grain transportation and the successful execu-tion of over 40 start-ups on railroads, rail-car shops, switching operations and transload locations will be of significant value when commencing operations in Western Australia,” said Watco EVP, CCO, Ed McKechnie.

Watco plans to launch its Western Australia operations in May 2012 and will transport 368 to 441 million bushels of grain annually from 192 grain eleva-tors to regional ports. About 95 percent of the grain harvested in the region is exported.

Watco’s strategies that already work here in the States will be implemented in the land down under.

“The Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma network is very similar to the Western Australia network in terms of wheat production,” says Rick Webb, Watco CEO. “We have a good knowledge in that area. We have a good cultural fit between our companies and the growers.”

Kinder Morgan InvestmentTwo days after Watco announced they were going global more news hit the

business community. Kinder Morgan announced they would be investing up to $150 million over the next year in Watco Companies in exchange for a preferred equity position in the company. Kinder Morgan’s initial investment will be $50 million upon closing, which is scheduled to occur in January of 2011. Kinder Morgan is a leading pipeline transportation and energy storage company based in North America. They ship natural gas, gasoline, crude oil, CO2 and other products, and its terminals store petroleum products and chemi-cals and handle bulk materials like coal and petroleum coke. KMP is the leading provider of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery projects in North America.

“This investment complements Kinder Morgan’s exist-

Western Australia’s Transport Minister Simon O’Brien, CBH CEO Dr. Andrew Crane and Watco EVP, COO Ed McKechnie at the media conference in Perth, Aus-tralia. (Continued on page 2)

ing terminal network, and provides our customers more transportation services for many commodities that we handle,” said, Jeff Armstrong, president of Kinder Morgan’s termi-nals business. “We also believe that the relationship with Watco will produce additional growth opportu-nities through new projects such as crude unit train operations and incremental business at our terminal storage facilities.”

The transaction provides capital to Watco for fur-ther expansion of specific projects and offers Kinder Morgan the opportunity to share in the subsequent growth.

Rick Webb, Watco CEO said, “We look forward to partnering with our good customer, Kinder Morgan. We are honored to have them as our partner and believe their reputation for providing safe, quality, value-creating terminal and storage services when combined with our rail service offerings will cre-ate many beneficial opportunities for both of our companies.”

With the discovery of large shale deposits and the technology to extract oil and gasses from the shale, the demand for shipping energy products will increase steadily each year and Watco and Kinder Morgan will be ready to provide transportation solu-tions to Customers across the country.

Greens Port Industrial Park acquisition

Two days after Watco announced the Kinder Morgan investment and four days after Watco an-nounced they were going global, one more event occurred in the Watco world. Watco successfully acquired the remaining interest in Greens Port Industrial Park (GPIP) located on the Houston ship channel in Houston, Texas. Watco has owned a minority interest in the property since 2004, when GPIP was originally acquired from AK Steel. Watco acquired the General Partnership interest of GPIP from Charles Iupe, a Houston based real estate developer who has been involved since 2004, along with all other limited partnership interests.

Rick Baden, Watco executive vice president and chief financial officer said, “We have experienced significant growth under Charles’ leadership which

positions us well for future success. His focus has been improving the quality of the real estate assets of the park and now we are excited to bring that same focus of improvement to the rail and the dock assets.”

Watco currently operates rail, transload, switching and mechanical services within the complex and will use its full ownership to aggressively pursue oppor-tunities at an accelerated pace.

Webb said, “We have seen solid growth at Greens Port over the last six years, but are very excited about the potential for future growth in the rail and dock assets. I want to thank our Watco Greens Port Switch-ing Team and the Rail Car Repair Team for represent-ing our interests so well at Greens Port over the years. By doing their job well we were in a good position to capitalize on this opportunity.”

GPIP is the largest private multi-tenant inter-modal industrial park in the Gulf Coast market. It consists of 640 acres and offers a multitude of services including warehousing, lay down storage, leasing of industrial property, access to deep water dock and barge, contract stevedoring, rail and truck transportation. There is currently more than 4,000 linear feet of ship channel frontage, including a 1,080 linear foot deep-water dock capable of serving some of the world’s largest ocean going vessels, as well as a separate barge terminal.

Greens Port currently contains over 3,000,000 square feet of industrial buildings with direct access to rail, dock and barge transportation. Additionally, the park includes four rail yards capable of storing up to 1,200 railcars. Greens Port is served by the Union Pacific, as well as the Kansas City Southern and BNSF Railroads via the service of the Port Ter-minal Railroad Association, and offers easy access to major thoroughfares serving the Houston area via its proximity to Interstate 10 and Highway 225.

The Port of Houston is one of the busiest ports in the United States in terms of foreign tonnage and the fifteenth-busiest in the world. With the comple-tion of the Panama Canal expansion in 2014, there is expected to be more than a 15 percent increase in cargo coming through the Houston ship chan-nel. Watco stands ready to pursue a share of the new cargo that will be arriving in Houston for distribu-tion throughout the United States.

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December 2010 brings historic changes

An overhead view of the Greens Port Industrial Park.

(Continued trom page 1)

This section provides examples of the Watco Team putting the Customer First Principles in action.

Often, when we think of Customer Service, we think of the people out deliver-

ing and repairing cars and performing transloading

services who work with the Customers on a daily basis. However, many times

Customers need assistance with billing and financial re-

ports and that’s where the revenue accounting department comes into play. Jocelyn Gates, assistant manager of revenue

accounting, recently received a letter and gift thanking her for her outstanding Customer Service. Janet Clark, supply and distribution manager

for Holly Refining wrote, “I wanted to again acknowledge that I appreciate the efforts that you demonstrate to continually provide Holly with prompt and excellent service in responding to our requests for financial reporting for the services your company provides. I understand that Holly is one of many companies that Watco interacts with; however, you continue to provide us a consistently high level of service by your timely responses and with thank you for your efforts.”Gates received an umbrella and Cross pen as a

thank you for her services. “This Customer has many dealings with our

company and I think this is an incredible show of how we strive to impress our Customers with our foundation principles,” said Kellie Sisler, vice president of revenue and car accounting.

Customer First Foundation Principles

in action

Jocelyn Gates, Assistant ManagerRevenue Accounting

2011 Annual Operating Plan MeetingThe 2011 Annual Operating Plans for the mechanical, transload and transporta-

tion divisions were presented this year during the first week of December. More than 75 team members attended the four and one-half day conference. The Trans-load AOPs covering all of the transloading sites were presented by Kevin Goins, SVP and COO transload and intermodal services, and Sam Ricci, transload opera-tions director. The Mechanical AOPs covering all of the mechanical shops and the mobile repair crews were presented by Dave Turner, SVP mechanical services, Andy Schaffer, COO mechanical services, and Dan Linden, VP of Central Region car repair. The Railroad AOPs were presented by their general managers while the Switching AOPs were presented by Keith Lacaze, VP of switching. A total of 65 different AOPs were presented during the conference.

In addition to reviewing the AOPs from the service groups, several presentations were given by corporate managers and members of the Executive Team.

Rick Webb, CEO, covered Watco’s Customer First Foundation Principles of Improving Cus-tomer Satisfaction, Improving Profitability and Doing Both Over the Long-Term. Webb broke down each principle into its subparts, and detailed the tools and attitudes that must be utilized to con-tinue to apply our Foundation Principles and be successful. He also emphasized the importance of developing our Team Members and the importance of safety in our daily activities.

Terry Towner, president and COO, focused on Watco’s 2011 Strategic Goals. These goals are:

1. Earning the privilege to expand Customer relationships by providing safe, exceptional service.

2. Achieve industry leadership in mitigating risks in safety, health and environ-ment.

3. Empower the success of our People through knowledge, understanding and information.

4. Achieve exceptional growth in profitability by leveraging the productive

value of our resources.5. Improve performance through innovative and creative development and use

of technology. Towner also presented the Watco Standards for Quality Leadership and Manage-

ment.Rick Baden, EVP and CFO, presented information on Watco’s financial per-

formance for 2010. He noted that Watco’s operating centers were on their way to exceeding their 2010 AOP. Watco’s ability to state that we were going to increase revenue and profitability in 2010 and then backing it up with this years’ perfor-mance was favorably noted by our lenders, particularly when most other business suffered a decline during this same time period.

Ed McKechnie, EVP and CCO, delivered a motivating presentation focusing on Watco’s Customer First Foundation Principles, Safety – It Matters, Growth – Domestic & International, and Leadership – One Watco.

And last but not least, Larry Jensen, SVP, chief mechanical offier, presented an overview of the new Damaged and Defective Car Tracking (DDCT) System that goes live January 5, 2011. The DDCT system will streamline the process of reporting incidents and damages to railcars.

Paul Schiefelbein, VP of strategic planning, said, “Each year the AOP presentations improve in qual-ity and content. Six years ago, it was upper man-agement that sat down and developed the AOPs for each profit center. Today, the field managers at all

levels get involved in the AOP development. The Transportation group currently has the general managers present their profit center at the AOP meetings. During the presentation these managers field questions from the executive group as well as their peers. This forum serves as a great information sharing platform, as one idea can spark many minds and help improve processes throughout the company! The goal next year is to have the transload site managers as well as the mechanical shop managers also perform the presentations of their profit centers. . It will be excit-ing to see the personal growth of the Mechanical and Transload managers over the next couple of years as they become totally responsible for the development and presentations of their AOPs.”

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John Snow, Pennsylvania Southwestern Railroad general manager presents his AOP for 2011.

The ABC’s of AOPWhat is AOP?

One word you will hear batted around on a daily basis at any Watco location is AOP. A question often asked by new team members or Watco visitors is “What is this AOP everyone’s talking about”? Watco’s AOP or, Annual Operating Plan, consists of four distinct but related plans; a marketing plan, an operations plan, a corporate and regional services plan and finally, a capital plan. Four distinct plans, but all of the plans have one key thing in common. They all start by identifying the Customer’s needs and then develop a plan to meet those needs. The plan defines how the Customer will be served, the timing and resources needed to execute the plan, the detailed financial effects, and finally, the metrics by which to monitor whether the plan is being met.

The first step is the Marketing Plan. The Watco Marketing Team collects in-formation from the Customer, reviews historical data, trends and world market conditions and then prepares an AOP detailing the Customer needs. This can be carload movement, storage or switching operations for the Transportation Services Team; transload, storage or trucking for the Transload Services Team; or car repair, storage, painting, coating or field service for the Mechanical Services Team.

The second step in the AOP process is the Operational Plan, where the Opera-tions Team of each service group reviews the Marketing AOP and develops a plan to meet those Customer needs. A tremendous amount of detail goes into this plan and it could not be done well by just a few individuals at the corporate office. While the regional business analyst usually helps put the plan together in its proper format, a good operating plan can only be created by truly understanding what the Customer really needs and then combining the inputs from all levels of field

management.Third comes the CRM Plan. CRM stands for Corporate, Regional and Market-

ing services. These service groups must also understand their Customer needs and create an annual operating plan to meet them. Who are these Customers? Sometimes these Customers are our external Customers, the ones that need the specialized services our field team members provide. Other examples of external Customers are our bankers that lend us money, our local communities and the fed-eral, state or local government agencies. But much of the CRM service is directed toward providing for the needs of our own Watco Team Members through the ef-forts of a variety of departments like payroll, accounting, human resources, benefits management, communications and safety management.

The final step is the Capital Plan. Watco’s business is intense in physical as-sets and must continuously maintain and improve these assets in order to meet Customers’ needs. This is where the capital plan comes into play. Field managers evaluate the needs of their Customers along with the condition of their assets and develop a prioritized capital plan.

Four distinct AOPs, but four plans working together to meet both external and internal Customer needs! That is the start of the AOP, but it doesn’t stop there. One of the key actions that distinguishes Watco from many other companies and helps make Watco successful is that it monitors daily its results against the plan and adjusts the plan as needed.

Very little in this world stays the same as it was yesterday. By constantly moni-toring our results against the plan, we can make adjustments that assure our Customers’ needs are being met and provide a continuously improving service and cost structure.

By Sharon K. SexsonKaw River Railroad Administrative Assistant

Town Hall meetings are often a great opportunity to recap what the company’s been doing and what they plan to do in the future. The Kaw River Railroad (KAW) took advantage of having the crew together at one time and invited a guest speaker to attend the meeting.

Mark McClellan, KAW general manager was in Pittsburg, Kan., for the AOP meetings so Jason “Bo” Alexander, KAW trainmaster, took the helm and led the meeting at the KAW’s Mill Street Yard on Decem-ber 9.

They started the meeting with the Watco Customer First Foundation Principles, driving home Customer Service points and reviewed the statistics for their profit center. Items such as the importance of job briefing and the rules governing inclement weather conditions and winter preparedness were discussed. The importance of keeping focused on the job during the holiday season was covered.

Safety was a key topic and the group went over items such as the proper air brake test and maximum stopping when going over public crossing and the im-portance of communication amongst crew members during switching operation was also expressed.

John Wyker, FRA chief inspector, was the guest speaker and discussed leaving cars in clear, electronic devices and conductor certification to be implemented in the later part of 2011.

They also reviewed where they were on the Bonus

program and the next goals to work with: no lost time injuries and human factor incidents, and non-report-able derailments.

Pork, brisket, and baked potatoes were catered in for the meeting.

By Debbie RossHuman Resource Manager, Transload Division

The Oklahoma City Transload Team is serious about their schoolwork and they’re serious about helping the community. The group compled tasks as part of their Watco U training and were able to better the commu-nity in the process.

While working on S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measur-able, attainable, realistic, time based) goals during the weekly general manager’s call, the ‘homework assign-ment’ was to include the supervisors and develop a strategic, tactical and operational goal. In OKC they chose a community service as their topic and ap-

plied all three goals to that one topic. Here’s how they mapped out their plan:

• Strategic Goal (long term): Make contact with the local city government to help figure out ways to better support its local community.

• Tactical Goal (short term): “Adopt” a portion of their facility street and keep the road trash free.

• Operational Goal (shorter term associated with tactical goal): Watco OKC food drive for a woman’s/children’s shelter.

The food drive had 100% participation from OKC team members. Some donated food, some gave money to buy food and some did both. Not only did team members get involved, customer service reps also in-volved the regular drivers from McCorkle, MGT and Southern Tank.

The donations were delivered to a local YWCA that serves as Oklahoma City’s contact point for the Knights of Kindness. The Knights of Kindness provide help with women and children crises centers, do-mestic abuse safe houses and many other services for women, children and senior adults.

Kristi Salek, office supervisor, helped deliver the items and said they were very grateful to receive them. “They were very surprised when we arrived and kept going out to the car for more boxes. I think the quantity of what we donated was more that what they normally receive from one group. It was worth all our work to see how excited everyone was.”

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Kaw River Town Hall features guest speaker

Homework helps community

From l-r: Jimmy McClain, DeAngello Draper, Scott Brawdy, Darryl Fields, Scott Moore, John Carson, An-nette Cipriano, Kristi Salek, Wes Bailey. Not pictured, Shawn Skillingstad.

John Wyker, FRA chief inspector, was a guest speaker at the Kaw River Railroad’s December Town Hall meeting.

Mitchell, Tyler, Cindy and Brooke Manning are ready to get things moving on the line that runs past their family business, Manning Grain.

By Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

Each year many little boys tell Santa they would like a train engine for Christmas and 10 year old Mitchell Manning has been waiting for one for about five years. However, the engine Mitchell has been waiting for weighs about 250,000 pounds and wouldn’t fit under even the largest of trees.

The locomotive is being leased from Watco by the Manning’s family business, Manning Grain, and was delivered on December 20, just in time for Christmas. Watco locomotive mechanic Tex Inman traveled from Houston, Texas, to Nebraska to help train the Manning Grain group on how to operate the locomotive.

“The locomotive arrived in excellent condition, but best of all was Tex Inman’s professional train-ing,” said Kent Manning, owner of Manning Grain. “Tex very patiently trained 12 people ages 10 to 80. He was very thorough about safety, operation, and maintenance of the loco. Tex also inspected our track, checked all the bridges, and switches. He left quite an impression on all of us.”

The track adjacent to Manning Grain hasn’t had a train run on it since July of 1998 and the Man-ning’s were told several times they would never see another train on it again.

“With the encouragement of Rick Webb we pur-chased the seven mile line in 2005,” said Manning. “We’ve experienced good growth the last few years and feel that our future depends on shipping by rail...and we plan to make that happen.”

The company started by the Manning family dates back to 1924 and has weathered many ups and downs throughout the years, as most grain related companies do. To accommodate the growers needs the company has been building large grain bins with high speed capacity for both truck and rail.

The immediate plan is to use the track for stor-age cars and build up revenue to get the line back in service. The locomotive will be used to switch the cars in and out of storage.

“Without the help of the good people at Watco I don’t think this would be possible, Thank you for making big dreams happen,” said Manning.

It looks like the “little engine that thought he could” has chugged his way to Burress, Neb.

A Christmas Engine

When Kyle Johnson started wrestling at the age of

six his mom, Diane Johnson, Pittsburg, Kan., payroll clerk, never dreamed where it would take him.

The three time State medalist recently signed an early letter of intent to wrestle with the Fort Hays State University Tigers next year. The move will take him across the state 350 miles to a school well known for their competitive wrestling program.

Johnson is currently a senior at Columbus High School in Columbus, Kan., and has thus far racked up more than 100 wins in his high school career and he still has a season to finish.

“We are very proud of Kyle, for the last 9 years he has had to work very hard to get where his is,” said his mother Diane. “He had to change schools his fresh-man year so that he could pursue his passion for the sport. It was a very hard choice which involved a 60-mile round trip every day to school and leaving all his

friends, along with the costs involved with the daily commute. He has accomplished so much and for him to live his dream is worth the sacrifices.”

WeddingsAntenojenes Barajas and Adelita Luna

Antenojenes Barajas and Adelita Luna were united in marriage on December 15, 2010 at the Church of Christ in Phoenix, Ariz. A reception was held on Satur-day, December 18, at the home of the newlyweds.

Antenojenes Adelita is the yard foreman at the Glendale, Ariz., transload facility and Adelita is the dispatch/Customer Service representa-tive for the same location.

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This section is dedicated to the Watco Team members to give you a chance to share what’s happening in your corner of the Watco World.

January Anniversaries

Watco son wrestles his way across Kansas

1 Year: James Calhoun, William Casselman, Ricky Hollis, Henry Lewis, James Mattsen, Seth Morris, Keith Owens, Edwin Quintanilla, Clinton Schipper, Jerry Smith, Jordan Talbert, Bruce Taylor, Jessie Tisdol 2 Years: Michael Kertz, James McCoy, Perry Pegues, Kevin Riley, Brent Shepherd, Abram Silva, Steve Smardo, Chad Taylor, Raymond Warrington 3 Years: Ricky Carter, Lysa Elkins, Russell Fahey, David Garcie, Jeffrey Hall, Jody Hyndshaw, Ken-dal Krepps, Donald Lake, Earl Mike, Michelle Musgrave, Keuan Perry, Reginald Portivent, Darci Spear, Gina Williams 4 Years: Jason Ankeny, Ron Close, Tomas Deleon, Tisha Drews, Jean Guerrier, Scott Heverly, Kelly Hucke, Leland Lott, Amy Miori, Frank Nichols, Jared Ramsey, Ronald Rathgeb, Jonathan Shuster 5 Years: Thomas Addison, Lewis Burlison, Carol Cook, Carlos Diaz, Johnny Fields, Edward George, Michael Gray, Josh Jacobs, Anthony Kirkland, Eddie Lapine, Steven ONeal, Tommy Stubbs, George Yellott 6 Years: Roy Apperson, David Fontaine, Alan Light, William Melton, Jimmie Miller, David Noonan, Eric Strait, Shasta Stump 7 Years: Clint Allen, Richard George, Gary Gris-wold, Terry Olin, Brian Pflughoeft 8 Years: Fallyne Deao, Karl Eggleston, David

Fowler, Mitch Smith 9 Years: Edward Davis, Jonathan Evans, Jim Fearmonti, Michael McGee, Leon Odom, Kenneth Schulze, Samuel Winegarner 10 Years: Kenneth Parkin, Mindy VanBuren 11 Years: Leon Abercrumbia, Aaron Guerrero, Karlis Nolley 12 Years: Michael Antoine, Darrel Claibourn, Clarence Collins 13 Years: Mark Walker 14 Years: Roger Kelley, Artis Smith 15 Years: Charlene Sigley 16 Years: Shannon Knisley, Brady Rogers, Rob Thrall 17 Years: Bonnie Baldwin, Tamera Payne18 Years: Sherlyn Graham, Randy Heverly, San-tiago Montoya, Charles Shope, Milburn Stewart 20 Years: Kirk Hawley 21 Years: Robert McKinnon 22 Years: James Young 24 Years: Tony Harper, Michael Roknich 26 Years: Dewayne Dockens 31 Years: L C Perkins 32 Years: Darryl Dyess, Charles Watkins 33 Years: Jeffery Yon 34 Years: Tex Inman 35 Years: Steve Rhodes 38 Years: Cecil Snider 44 Years: Arthur Campbell 46 Years: Earl Bowser

Antenojenes and Adelita BarajasKyle Johnson’s parents and coaches surround him as he signs a letter of intent to wrestle at Fort Hays. Pictured are front row, left to right: Curt Johnson, Kyle Johnson and Diane Johnson, . Back row: Coaches Todd Napier, Eric Napier and Roy Haraughty.

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The newsletter for Watco Companies, Inc. and Watco Transportation Services, Inc.January 2011, Volume 12, Issue 1

CBH representatives Mike Poore, freight contracts manager, and Owen Davies, manager operations-logis-tics strategy, met Pittsburg State University’s Gus the Gorilla, while in Kansas to tour Watco locations.

by Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

When looking to ship grain most people wouldn’t think about heading to the jungle but that’s where two CBH Group representatives ended up when selecting a company to move their grain. The jungle that Mike Poore, freight contracts manager, and Owen Davies, manager operations-logistics strategy, ended up in was actually Pittsburg State Univer-sity’s football stadium in Pittsburg, Kan., called “The Jungle” by locals. The university’s mascot, the Gorilla, is what led announcer Pete Hamilton to dub the stadium such about 16 years ago. Pittsburg State is the only university to have the Gorilla as a mascot.

Since Watco and the CBH Group are both very supportive of their area sports teams it was only fit-ting that they be taken to a PSU home football game while in town, which just happened to be against

rivals Missouri Southern.“We were shown a great time and introduced to

most of Pittsburg, we felt like we met the whole sta-dium at the tailgate when the Gorillas beat Missouri Southern….including Gus the Gorilla,” said Davies.

Two groups came over to visit various Watco properties and Customers to see how operations are conducted and how Customers are served. Watco locations visited by the Australians were the Boise Valley Railroad, Coffeyville Mechanical Shop, the Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad and locomotive shop, the South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad and Houston’s Greens Port Industrial Park.

“It was clear Watco employees believed in their company values of putting the customer first. Everyone we met could not have been more welcoming, but also keen to hear what we did and how we did things. People listened intently to try to understand our business (though sometimes it may have been to try to understand our accents),” said Davies.

The second group to visit the Watco Team was John Hassell, Mick McGinniss and Colin Tutt. Hassell and McGinniss are both grain producers who serve on CBH’s board of directors and Tutt is the general manager of operations. As grain growers, Hassell and McGinniss were both interested in operations from a Customers perspective and spent an afternoon with the Kansas and Okla-homa Railroads’s grain Customers in the Wichita area.

“Rick (Webb) took Mick and me out for an unscheduled ride on a train, which we also got to drive and got to engage with Randy (Letner) and John (Spahn),” said Hassell. “We were really surprised and pleased at their attitude to the busi-ness of customer first. Randy was also very keen to take ownership of the relationships with custom-ers and the fact that he was the first one to come to

when it came to solving problems with customers. The hospitality and welcome extended by all staff (including the boss) was fantastic. I really look for-ward to being able to do the same for Watco when they come to WA.”

One thing the Australians commented on was the food choices that we have available in our country.

“You can’t just order an egg for breakfast, you have to choose between 10 different ways that it can be cooked. In Auss, you just take what they throw on the plate , we just don’t get a choice here,” said Tutt. “If you drive into a take away place to buy a burger in Perth, it’s in your hands in 2 seconds, in the US,

it’s the choices first and after that’s sorted, it’s deliv-ered, making the choices delays the delivery of the burger. We are just not aligned with such a service based culture, it’s very strong.”

Watco will be serving up it’s Customer First ser-vice based culture to Australia with the start-up of operations scheduled for May of 2012.

Gus the Gorilla greets Australians in the Jungle

CBH representatives John Hassell, director, Colin Tutt, general manager operations and Mick McGinniss, director, left the warm summer days of Australia behind when they visited the snowy Boise Valley Railroad.