Bruening Rock Products is celebrating its 80th anniversary

One of Decorah's largest employers is celebrating a milestone.  Bruening Rock Products is 80 years old this year.

Founder Leo Bruening was an itinerant truck driver during the Depression.  He moved north from Oklahoma, stopping in Shenandoah, Iowa before heading north for work in Decorah.  The move to Decorah came as Leo and Theresa Bruening's son, Duane, was about to begin school.  That's when Theresa told Leo the family would not be moving again!

Leo got work hauling coal from the railroads to Luther College, working hard and eventually expanding his business to four trucks.  He expanded into lime work for farmers, then incorporated as Bruening Rock in 1946.  He bought Decorah's John Deere dealership and kept it through the mid 60s.

In 1954 Duane Bruening took over the company.  Throughout the next decades, Duane grew the family business to over 30 employees with multiple quarry sites throughout Iowa.

In 1986, control of the company was passed on to his two sons, Greg and Keith.  The company that started with just a few employees has now expanded to having more than 425 employees and to having facilities from Red Wing, Minnesota in the north to Kirksville, Missouri in the south.

The expansion that the company has undergone in the past two decades probably will continue, says Keith Bruening.  That's because the equipment needed for gravel hauling, road construction and quarry work has gotten so expensive, with a dump truck costing over $200,000 and cranes costing up to $1 million.

But while the company has gotten bigger, it has retained its Decorah roots. Much of the reason the company has stayed in Decorah is the way its employees have stayed with the company.  Over 100 employees have worked at the company for 20 years or more, with many having worked for 40 years or more.  It's that body of experience that makes Bruening Rock Products, Inc. successful in a very competitive industry.

Bruening Rock Products now has seven different companies