Behlen Grain Systems and Sweet Material Handling are one year into a strategic union that combines grain storage and material handling under a single platform. Together, the two family-founded companies bring 160 years of experience to the market. The acquisition creates a complementary product portfolio, pairing Behlen’s large-capacity grain bins with Sweet’s conveying, drying and handling equipment to deliver more complete system solutions.
In this interview, Behlen’s Cody Myers shares how the integration is progressing, where synergies are emerging across engineering and manufacturing, and how customer feedback is shaping the next phase of product development and innovation.
Transcript of interview with Cody Myers, president of Behlen Grain Systems:
Elise Schafer, editor, Feed & Grain: Hi everyone, it’s Elise Schafer, editor of Feed & Grain. Today I’m at GEAPS Exchange 2026 in Kansas City, Missouri. I’m here talking with industry leaders, equipment manufacturers and suppliers of products and services for the commercial grain handling industry.
Cody Myers, president, Behlen Grain Systems: I'm Cody Myers, president of Behlen Grain Systems.
Schafer: Can you walk us through a brief history of Behlen and a little about its recent union with Sweet Material Handling?
Myers: Yeah, Behlen was started in 1936 by the Behlen Brothers, so Behlen is actually a last name and it was family owned in the beginning. It was publicly owned for a period of time in the 60s and 70s and then it was family owned again by the Raimondo family from 1984 until the present. So a long, long history — 90 years — and still going strong on the Behlen side.
And then one year ago, about to the day, we finalized the acquisition of Sweet Manufacturing, which is another very reputable long-standing family-owned company in Springfield, Ohio, and owned by and started by W. Dean Sweet for a period of time and then his daughter later in the in the company's history. So, we finalized that a year ago and Sweet hit its 70th anniversary this year, so combined we have 160 years’ experience between both of the companies.
And it's really been a good transition. One of the keys to making this acquisition successful was the cultural piece. So, Behlen — a larger company, but also family-owned — very similar values to what Sweet Manufacturing and previous ownership of Sweet Manufacturing was. So, there were little small nuances, but overall, the cultures were very, very similar. So, that made that transition smoother and we're still learning every day, right?
We're still integrating the teams together, but it's been very good for both sides because we've got the bin side in Columbus, Nebraska, we've got the material handling side now in Springfield, Ohio, under the same umbrella, same team, and that really opens a lot of avenues with them in the east, with grain bins in the west, you know, dealer networks that overlap some, but not completely, and, as well as a lot of international opportunities that have arose from the joint team effort on both the Sweet side and the grain bin side.
Schafer: What are the core product offerings by each brand and how do they complement each other?
Myers: So that's one of the beauties of this acquisition, right? There was almost zero overlap in products between the two companies. So Behlen, historically, in Columbus, Nebraska, has made the grain bin, right? We make anywhere from a 16-foot diameter grain bin up to 157-foot diameter grain bin and basically everywhere in between. And obviously we've evolved to the larger grain bins. That's kind of what Behlen is known for is our large grain bins. We have grain bins over 2 million or up to 2 million bushels out there being operated today.
And now Sweet, on the other hand, didn't do anything with grain bins, and so they do all the material handling, so they're moving grain. So, we've got bucket elevators, chain conveyors, round bottom conveyors, enclosed belt conveyors, open belt conveyors, a Calorimatic, which is a fluidized bed dryer, roaster dryer. So, really all of those products are complementary.
You know, we've got to store the grain in the grain bin, we've got to get the grain in, we've got to get the grain out. Well, that's where Sweet comes in and that's where that team has that expertise and the team in Columbus has the grain bin expertise. So, it's really been a good complementary acquisition. [We’re] not in the situation where we have crossover products and we've got to figure out who's making what — no, it's been all synergistic product lines.
Schafer: Quality and consistency in equipment performance is critical in grain handling and processing. How does Sweet and Behlen deliver on both?
Myers: It comes down to — like I started this with — the history, right? 160 years combined between these two companies with expertise on the material handling side and expertise on the grain bin side. So we've probably done it wrong at one point, right, but the key is not necessarily to not do anything wrong, it's a matter of don't repeat that. So, we've got a ton of experience and a ton of tenure and long-term employees on both sides that really give us that key and that expertise, you know, to maybe make a few mistakes. We're all human, right? Everybody can make a mistake here and there, it's a matter of not repeating it. So we take that, learn from it, continue to innovate, continue to evolve, and continue to listen to our dealers on what they need, our dealers and our customers.
We have a saying at Behlen that our customers sign our paychecks. Well, that's absolutely the case in a manufacturing world, so we try to definitely cater to what they need. So if we can meet those needs better, we build that partnership to be a longer and better partnership over the years.
Schafer: So, what's next for the company? What can we expect in terms of product development and innovation?
Myers: Yeah, we've been constantly evolving, constantly changing. On the grain bin side, over the last few years, we've done some major revamps to our grain bin. And redid a vertical seam line and some of the connection points and really just trying to, you know, add more value per pound of steel. At the end of the day, a lot of the cost of grain bin is steel. And so if we can do more with every pound of steel, right, we're creating more value for the customer. So, it's been an exciting journey over the last three years to really see what that engineering team can do and increase that value for the customer and reduce those pounds of steel so they can get more for their money. And so they've done a lot with that, made us more competitive, got us into different markets, and we're going to continue that trajectory.
Now on the Sweet side, they've also done a lot of integration, let's say, in revamps and new products over the last few years, including their QL line, which really integrated a lot of the features, again, listening to what the customer and the dealer wants, right? That may tell us what they need, and that helps us develop what we need to that serves their needs. So the QL series, like what's behind me, has features that were options in the past. How do we integrate that into the standard design and make that easy? So if somebody wants it, they can add it on. It's just a bolt-on option. If somebody doesn't want it, so be it, right? It's there if they need it in the future. So, they've done a lot of work there and continuing that on with new products such as self-cleaning boot for that QL line and continuing to integrate the two companies together and learning from each other and even manufacturing together.
Like I said, we've got a diverse footprint now. We've got manufacturing in Nebraska, we've got manufacturing in Ohio, and we've got the potential to do things for each other in each location. So we've actually, in this first year, we have produced some Sweet material handling equipment in the Columbus, Nebraska, plant — a large bucket elevator that was better suited to be produced in Columbus, Nebraska.
So, we'll continue to look for synergies, logistical synergies, as well as the product development. The engineering teams are always … they're never not busy, we'll put it that way. And so they're always looking for that next best thing. There will definitely be some things to come as far as new products and new integration between the two companies going forward.
Schafer: Well, Cody, thank you so much for sitting down with me today.
Myers: Yes, I appreciate the time and look forward to doing this again someday.
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