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At 25 Years, Coffeyville’s Legacy is Already Written

At times, it feels like longer than 25 years. At other times, much shorter.
“It’s a little bit surreal. Sometimes I sit outside the office looking at the plant and think, ‘I’ve been here a long time.’ But other times, I think about how fast our kids have grown up and think, ‘How did all this happen so quickly?’” said Tim Anderson, plant manager at Tessenderlo Kerley’s plant in Coffeyville, Kansas.
A Kansas-Oklahoma border town with fewer than 9,000 residents, Coffeyville has been through rough economic times, though the plant has become a symbol of strength and resiliency - and on Oct. 27, the plant will celebrate its 25th anniversary.
Anderson has been there from the beginning, starting as an outside plant operator in 1997.
“Tessenderlo Kerley was already strong, but the Coffeyville plant was an important link from the past to the future. We’ve been kind of a battleship plant over the years. They built it to do one thing, and 25 years later, we’re doing a lot of other things at this facility.”
The production of Tessenderlo Kerley’s Thio-Sul®, KTS® and K-Row 23®, sold by Crop Vitality, have become some of the most trusted products in crop nutrition.
“I felt like we’ve had a big hand in helping to grow that market by putting the product in the tanks so the salespeople can grow that market,” Anderson said. “Over the years, that’s one of the things that I’ve been proud of.”
Anderson said the primary reason for the Coffeyville plant’s success is simple. It’s the people who work there and ensure quality and safety every day.
“These guys look out for each other. They spend time away from work together. They golf together. They fish together. Some of the families do things together,” Anderson said.
“Guys are working in vessels and on scaffolds with heat indexes of 110 degrees. Seeing these guys helping each other, looking out for each other, making sure they’re doing OK - you can tell it’s a family.”
So many former Coffeyville employees have climbed the Tessenderlo Kerley ranks to become plant and area managers. Anderson believes it’s one of the reasons for the continued growth of the company.
“It’s great to see the growth and to see them building a mega-plant like Defiance, Ohio, and to know that so many of the people that were here and are still here had so much to do with that,” he said. “Whenever I go to Phoenix and go to the yearly meetings, to see all the faces and some of those folks I’ve worked with for a long time, it’s just amazing to me to see the growth in this company and how much input people have had.”
At the same time, Anderson understands the necessity of molding the next generation to keep Coffeyville a cornerstone of Tessenderlo Kerley’s success.
“At some point, it’s going to be somebody else’s turn, and I want to make sure that the new people coming in are well trained and can handle the job,” Anderson said. “I’m kind of in that legacy spot right now, where we need to get some younger guys hired so I can teach them what I know, so that whenever I leave, it’ll still be a great place to work like it has been for the past 25 years.”
Anderson’s job during his quarter century in Coffeyville is far from complete. But the hard work, the dedication to crop nutrition, and the family atmosphere is a legacy that, when it’s his time to step aside, he will be happy to stand on.???????
“This place means a lot to me because it’s done a lot for me and for my family,” Anderson said. “I never thought that what I did as a person would reflect so much off what my job was, and how much that would eventually mean to me someday.”