Perched on the western side of Highway 169 just north of Super 8 and the iconic Happy Chef is a nearly 75-year-old Mankato business you might have overlooked countless times.
But rest assured, those who need the products and services offered at Waco Scaffolding & Supply Co. and its sister operation, Riverbend Rental, know exactly where to go.
“We have scaffolding for all kinds of projects — commercial, residential, you name it,” said Nathan Winch, fourth-generation owner of Waco/Riverbend.
“And Riverbend Rental is equipment rental, including small machines, tillers, aerators, all kinds of lawn and garden tools, augers, compressors, all the way up to skid steers and boom lifts.”
With seven employees, Waco/Riverbend covers all the bases.
“Our job is to make your job easier, whether that involves landscaping, construction, home improvement, masonry — we cover a lot of sectors,” Winch said.
“Any time a need for scaffolding arises, Waco’s where we go,” said Josh Williams, the second-generation owner of WEB Construction.
“We’ve been in the Mankato area for 55 years ourselves; my dad, Jerry, worked with Nathan’s dad, Dennis, and we’ve kept that relationship going,” he said.
“We also buy and rent a fair amount of material from Waco/Riverbend, and they always have a good handle on what’s available. They’re great about coming out to a building site and offering suggestions or solutions for us.”
A younger business owner, Alex Melvin of Kato Lawn & Landscaping, seconds Williams’ glowing opinion.
“Riverbend Rental is 100% our go-to for rental needs and tools,” Melvin said.
“They make it so simple and cost-effective to rent equipment from them, and their customer service is outstanding. After five years of experiences with them, they continue to surprise us with their great service. I can’t say enough (good) about them.”
Family history, deep roots
It’s likely that Waco/Riverbend’s own lengthy history as a family-owned small business has a lot to do with their proven record of providing what their customers need, topped off with gold-plated service.
The company history Nathan Winch and his dad, Dennis, relate is consistent with what’s shared on their websites (riverbendrentalmankato.com and wacoscaffold.com).
“Leonard Diegnau was my grandma’s uncle,” Nathan said. “In 1950, he retired from a career as a butcher and was looking for a new challenge when he saw an ad from the Wilson Albrecht Company (thus, “Waco”) out of Cleveland, Ohio, looking for a salesman in the area.”
Diegnau was game for the challenge and after traveling extensively across the five-state area, dragging trailers filled with scaffolding behind, he learned most customers would rather rent scaffolding products for the short-term instead of buying them.
The enterprising Diegnau eventually moved his scaffolding rental operation to one of the several properties he’d acquired in the Mankato area — namely, to an area being used as the Lundin rock quarry off Third Avenue (now the Calpine Power Plant location).
“When the Army Corps of Engineers built the dikes in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, Len sold fill from his land off the hillside to the Army Corps, giving us the flat area off 169 where Waco/Riverbend is now located,” Dennis said.
“And he owned the land across the road, too, where the Army Corps dumped their waste material. That was eventually donated and became the Kiwanis Dog Park, and the Diegnau Trail was named for him.”
Diegnau died in 1984, but Dennis Winch remembers spending many Saturdays as a child cleaning scaffolding for Diegnau at the old Lundin quarry — his first foray into the business.
While Alice Winch — Diegnau’s niece and Dennis Winch’s mother — kept Waco going, Dennis served in the U.S. Navy on eight different aircraft carriers, thereafter moving to Iowa and working as an engineer for Eaton Corp. He returned to Mankato in 1985, when Nathan was a third grader.
“I graduated from Loyola in 1995 and enlisted in the Navy out of high school,” Nathan said.
He then worked at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as an aviation mechanic for several years before heading back in 2007 to Waco/Riverbend, and Mankato, along with his wife, Angie, and their two children.
“Dennis started Riverbend Rental in the early 1990s to appeal to a different clientele,” Nathan said.
“When Waco began adding different products and services, Riverbend Rental was more descriptive of what we were doing and made it clear we weren’t just a scaffolding company anymore.”
Something for everybody
Waco/Riverbend’s customer base is “all over the map,” Dennis said.
“We have some contractors here several times each week, buying and renting from us, and people who come once each April to rent a garden tiller or aerator for their lawn,” Nathan said.
“Sometimes, a person stops in to rent one item, sees other things we have and comes back for something else another time,” he said.
“But a big part of what we do is ask a few questions, help people pick the right thing for them, explain why a machine or piece of equipment is what you need. We’re always willing to listen, to educate and assist our customers, and that’s what keeps them coming back.
“The longevity, work ethic and knowledge of our employees helps us build our relationships and makes us successful; our staff is our biggest asset,” said Nathan, citing a few employees who worked at Waco/Riverbend for 20 to 35 years before their retirement.
“Our employees share in the pride of our businesses with us. They’re always going the extra mile, and together we take a lot of pride in building long-lasting relationships with our customers.”
Added Dennis, “This is a family business and we treat our employees like family.”
Nathan echoed that sentiment: “We’ve learned that if you take care of your people, your people will take care of the business.”
