Kurtz Bros. Bring Consistency, Increase Volume With Backers Star Screen.

Kurtz Bros., Inc. has been a stalwart in Ohio for decades. Founded in 1948, they are best known for their mulch, topsoil and compost production, although they also offer various environmental services through several different brands. 

Since their founding, Kurtz Bros., Inc. has become the biggest mulch producer in Ohio, serving the entire state for their landscaping and environmental needs. With such a scale of production, Kurtz Bros. processes a large volume of materials and put their machines to work daily. 

Aaron Brockway joined Kurtz Bros as the Operations Manager in 2019, and he needed to find a screening machine more productive and user-friendly than the electric star screen the company was using at the time. That machine had too many mechanical issues and was unnecessarily complicated. Being one of the premier operations in the Midwest, the demands for their mulch, compost, and topsoil are nonstop. 

After hosting a demonstration of the Backers 3-tal from Ecoverse, Brockway could tell it was up to their high production, minimal downtime requirements. 

“We demo’d the Backers, we liked it, and we purchased it,” he said, adding that it was the customer support from Ecoverse that also helped seal the deal. 

“Sean Donaghy and Ecoverse have been second to none,” Brockway said. “I just feel more loyalty from them. It’s not just words – they mean it.” 

The Backers Star Screen has proved quite intuitive for the team at Kurtz. In fact, Brockway said he and his crew learned most of what they needed to know about the machine in the demo, so by the time they owned the machine they were ready to put the machine to work. 

Not only is the machine easy to run, but Kurtz finds the design to be very practical. For example, material can be fed from both sides of the hopper, the fines come off the backside of the machine, and the tracks add the convenience of maneuverability. 

“We can fit it in tight spots without having to hook a truck up to it, trying to jack it around at weird angles,” said Brockway. “We just move the Backers around however we want.” 

But their favorite feature? The consistency the machine brings to their products, said Brockway. They run their material product through the machine just once and produce both their triple and double ground mulch. And they know exactly what the two products will look like.  

Minimal handling, maximum production and consistency are the goal of every producer, and the Backers lives up to that.  

“We purchased the Backers for the consistency for our customers,” said Brockway. “The size, type, and the way our products look – whether it’s triple, double, or compost – what we make this year is going to be the exact same next year. We dial it in with how fast we want the stars to move, walk away from it and keep feeding it.” 

Kurtz Bros. gets that kind of consistency and production despite the unpredictable, wet climate that Northeast Ohio is known for. The Backers Star Screen is uniquely engineered to produce regardless of the condition of the material. 

To learn more about Kurtz Bros. visit kurtz-bros.com. 

Ecoverse^® provides North America the best engineered and well-made environmental processing equipment that adds value to waste products by converting them into usable end products. Launched in 2001 with the introduction of Doppstadt^® shredders, grinders, and trommel screens, we now offer BACKHUS^® compost turners, Backers star screens, Tiger depackaging systems, EcoSift density separators, EcoStack conveyors, Ecoscreen trommels and scalping screens, Menart tow-behind compost turners, CK International balers, and Roco rock crushers and scalping screens. We also offer know-how, experience, and expertise to help guide you towards the right machines for your needs, your operations, and your budget to help you do more, better.

Contact us to learn how we can take your environmental processing to the next level of production and profitability.