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Walker Manufacturing President Bob Walker says he and his brother Don learned everything they needed to know about business when they were young, watching their father, Max Walker, run the family business. “Our dad would allow us to come into his office and sit and listen to him talk to people,” Walker explains. “We learned a lot just from listening to him talk.” 

The principles Walker learned from his father are still the guiding force behind Walker Manufacturing, and are a big part of the reason why the company is one of the top manufacturers of commercial-grade lawn mowers in the United States. Walker says his father’s knowledge of Scripture has built a foundation of responsibility, hard work and fairness that is codified in a statement on the company’s website. “Those became some of the great guiding principles of our company,” he says. “We lived all of these before we wrote them down.”

Along with the company’s spiritual and moral foundation, Walker Manufacturing owes its success to the strength and versatility of its products. Even though the company’s competition includes the biggest names in lawn mowers, Walker explains that Walker Manufacturing has the ability to stand toe-to-toe with them in the market.

Strong Equipment

Max Walker began experimenting with building agricultural equipment in the 1950s, when he developed a small track vehicle that was shown at the Kansas State Fair to great acclaim. That led to the development of gasoline-powered golf cars, which Max Walker started to produce while still working the family farm. A small utility truck called the Walker Power Truck was designed and manufactured in the late 1960s. After a period of developing and manufacturing products for other companies – including a line of cab coolers for agricultural tractors – the company began making lawn mowers in 1980. 

Not satisfied with the slow and clumsy riding lawn mowers on the market at the time in the late 1970s, Max Walker and his sons went to work developing a powerful, compact mower that was also durable and easy to operate. Bob Walker says most consumer-grade lawn mowers are built to have a lifespan of about 150 to 200 hours of operation. That will last the average homeowner several years, but landscape contractors often mow up to 1,000 hours in a single year. 

“A commercial grade mower is one that has to last,” Walker says. He adds that Walker Manufacturing aims to build mowers that last for 3,000 to 5,000 hours of operation. 

Although other manufacturers were building zero-turn-radius lawn mowers before Walker Manufacturing, Walker says the company has improved on the concept by building mowers that are more compact. This allows the company’s mowers to be more effective around obstacles and better at trimming. “Our vision was to create a very compact machine, and we’ve kept that as part of our concept,” Walker says. 

Walker Manufacturing has introduced other innovations to the commercial mower market, as well. Walker says the company was the first to include a built-in grass collection system, and these types of mowers have proven to be a significant portion of the company’s business. “We’ve pretty well owned that segment of the market,” Walker says. 

Another forward-thinking feature of the company’s mowers actually comes from the golf cars Max Walker used to build. Those vehicles featured a tilt-up body that provided easy access to the working parts for maintenance, a feature that is included on the company’s riding lawn mowers today. Walker notes that many of the company’s competitors don’t feature a tilt-up body or mower deck on their machines. 

Forging Ahead

Walker says he believes the company’s strengths are enough to overcome the many challenges present in the market, but those challenges remain formidable. Chief among these concerns is the state of the economy and the impact it has had on the commercial lawn mower market. Walker says annual production has decreased over the last few years, and with the number of competitors in the market, the company has experienced increased price pressure. 

Some types of commercial mowers almost have become like commodities due to the intense price pressure at the moment, Walker says. However, Walker Manufacturing has no intention to bow to that pressure itself, as Walker says its customers understand the value its mowers provide them. 

Along with price pressure, Walker says Walker Manufacturing also contends with increased government regulation, especially in terms of environmental laws. Although Walker says the company is environmentally conscious, it wants to see regulation balanced in ways that doesn’t overburden business and decrease value to the customer. 

Even though there are obstacles in its way, Walker says Walker Manufacturing should be able to negotiate them successfully, not unlike the way its mowers navigate the terrain. “We’re optimistic that the company will continue to move ahead,” he says. “We’re excited about the fact that new manufacturing technologies are increasingly available to a company our size.” 

No matter where the future takes the company, Walker says the lessons he learned from his father will continue to carry Walker Manufacturing into the future as a company that values people.

“Many lessons have come my way during this time, the most important of which is that there is no greater asset than the people we deal with who make this business and product possible,” he said in a statement.