For the Hub City Times

MARSHFIELD – Hastreiter LLC recently announced the acquisition of Stainless and Repair Inc. (S&R), joining Hastreiter Industries Corp. as a sister company.

Stainless and Repair, now officially S&R Truck LLC., builds Heavy Trucks, Fire Trucks, repairs and distributes milk tankers and has extensive expertise in welding and fabrication.

“Stainless and Repair is a great family business that will continue to be family owned in Marshfield. Between the capabilities of S&R and Hastreiter Industries’ precision CNC machining capabilities, there’s nothing the two companies can’t build together,” says Ken Hastreiter, President at Hastreiter Industries. “S&R will continue to operate as they did, with every employee retained, servicing their customer base as they have for the last 49 years.”

“This could not have come at a better time for our family,” says Derrick Backaus, former president of Stainless and Repair, Inc., and current CEO of S&R Truck LLC. “My wife is currently fighting her battle with cancer, and my brother, Daniel, just lost his wife to cancer in December. Life is precious, and life is short. We all realized that we needed to take more time to spend with family.”

Derrick added that every single family member will retain a position at S&R.

“It was very important to me that my family, including the family of employees, retained our employment at S&R. We love what we do. Family has always been the core of what we’ve done here. Partnering with another family ensured that we were able to stay here and be a part of this exciting future,” he added.

Hastreiter Industries is a precision CNC machine shop that serves Aerospace, Defense, Energy, Industrial Equipment and other sectors. The company was founded in 1988 by Ken and Sondra Hastreiter under the name Universal Tool and Machine (UTM), they are now joined by their three sons Kylan, Keegan, and Kody. Hastreiter Industries is also behind the new C2 Makerspace being launched at UWSP Marshfield Campus.

S&R was founded in 1973 by Stanley Backaus and later joined by his three sons Derrick, Dale, and Daniel. The company started by doing repair work and construction for milk haulers and cheese factories, and quickly expanded into servicing fire apparatus which today includes building rescue trucks, UTV units, brush trucks, tenders, fire engines, pumper tankers, command vehicles and more. They also produce heavy-truck bodies including dump trucks and municipal snow fighting vehicles.  S&R also services bodies, van bodies, platforms, suspensions, wheelbase modifying, lift axle installations, parts supply, custom fabrication for a variety of industries and other truck equipment needs.