Testimonials
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McKay Nursery Company
McKay Nursery has a fleet of 18 skid steers, seven of which are served by steel tracks.

Even before the Ford Motor Company began or before the Wright Brothers defied gravity at Kitty Hawk, Billy McKay began serving retail and wholesale landscape customers in Wisconsin. For the record the year was 1897. Implementing sound business practices that gave his nursery a strong foundation in trade, McKay’s business would thrive even during the economic hard times of the Great Depression, during World War II and in the six decades that have since followed. Continuing their long-standing policy of remaining debt-free, today McKay Nursery serves over 20,000 retail customers and 400 wholesale accounts across the United States… and to get the job done McKay Nursery has committed itself to ComponentsPlus’
TracksPlus™ skid steer tracks.
McKay’s Land and Equipment Manager Tom Hoesly explained to ComponentsPlus that the management style of those who own McKay’s is one of the reason’s it remains successful. “McKay Nursery is employee owned and operated,” explains Hoesly.
“Capital expenditure planning is done quite publicly. Crews and departments are asked to literally submit budget ‘wish lists’. Those requests go to the management advisory committee, which then recommends to the board of directors a trimmed list. Since short and long range planning is closely tied to that budget, the same people are involved in that process. We then publish the budgeted list and copies are made available. That has helped us communicate the short-term direction of the company. It has also resulted in excellent value as people have contributed sources for purchases that management might have missed and ideas for creating function-improving ‘inventions’ come from us as employees. The TracksPlus™ skid steer track is one of those function-improving products.”
McKay Nursery has 18 skid steers and seven of the 18 have steel tracks on them. “We would not be able to operate without steel tracks,” Hoesly reports, “Our skid steers will always have steel tracks.” McKay Nursery purchased their first TracksPlus™ skid steer track in March 2003. It has been in service constantly, currently has 1,000+ hours on the tracks and still operating beyond their expectation.
“The largest advantage of the TracksPlus™ track is that they cost less than one-half of what we’ve been currently buying,” Hoesly says, “Other advantages are the smoother ride, lighter weight, reduced machine maintenance and the skid steers are easier on fuel with TracksPlus™ tracks on them.”
When McKay Nursery purchased competitor Loegering tracks at a higher price, they were forced to rebuild the tracks, costing $400-$500 plus a day in the shop with two workers cleaning and rebuilding the tracks. Hoesly comments’ “For about the same price we can now purchase a new set of TracksPlus™ tracks. This allows the shop to work on something more productive to the McKay business.”
McKay Nursery grows 550 varieties of trees, shrubs and perennials on 1,800 acres of land. They will continue to buy TracksPlus™ skid steer tracks from ComponentsPlus because, as Hoesly explains, “We must perform our job efficiently and always with an eye to cost, and ComponentsPlus helps us do exactly that.”