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A 2018 photo of Donna Shoff (center) President of H.L. Wiker Excavating, at a job site at Lancaster Laboratories.
A 2018 photo of Donna Shoff (center) President of H.L. Wiker Excavating, at a job site at Lancaster Laboratories.
H.L. Wiker, an East Lampeter Township-based excavating company, is winding down its operations after selling off equipment and its headquarters to separate local firms.
Most of H.L. Wiker’s 53 employees now work for B.R. Kreider & Son, an East Hempfield Township-based excavating firm that bought about three-quarters of Wiker’s equipment as well as a slate of its jobs for an undisclosed price in December.
H.L. Wiker’s headquarters at 709 Hartman Station Road, which included a converted barn and a wash bay on 13.6 acres, now belongs to Snavely’s Mill, which bought it in late December for $4.2 million. The Warwick Township-based flour milling company purchased the property because it offers potential access to a rail line, although it has not finalized its plans, said Steve Hibshman, a managing partner at Acuity Advisors and CPAs who is advising Snavely’s Mill.
A Norfolk Southern freight line runs adjacent to the former H.L. Wiker property, which includes portions in East Lampeter and Upper Leacock townships. The rail line is a 12-mile spur that connects New Holland to the main rail line from Lancaster to Philadelphia.
“Knowing that Wiker’s were intending to exit the business, Snavely’s took the opportunity to strike a transaction to hold that property,” Hibshman said. “But we’re really only in the early stages of figuring out what we may do with it and who may participate with us in that.”
In addition to its mill outside Lititz, Snavely’s Mill operates mills in Lebanon, Columbia and Clinton counties.
The sales come as H.L. Wiker’s owners Donna Shoff and Jeff Wiker transition out of the business their family began in 1988. Schoff, who became the company’s president in 2007, said there is still some equipment and tools to sell, adding that she continues to work with B.R. Kreider on transitioning jobs that were originally H.L. Wiker’s.
“We were looking for ways to take care of our team and serve our clients well,” Shoff said of the sale to B.R. Kreider.
Of the sale of the real estate to Snavely’s Mill, Shoff said she was “very happy for the opportunity to sell the real estate to local business owners.”
“We weren’t interested in (H.L. Wiker’s) property, and it worked out perfect for them,” said Brent Kreider, president of B.R. Kreider. “They had someone else interested in it and that’s what made the whole thing work.”
For B.R. Kreider, the new equipment, experienced employees and new projects add important capability to his firm, which has locations in Providence Township and Lebanon County in addition to its East Hempfield Township headquarters, Kreider said. The family-owned firm, which was founded in 1936, makes roughly $57 million in annual sales and now operates with 245 employees, a number that includes the new ones from H.L. Wiker.
Kreider said he did not want to specify how many H.L. Wiker employees joined B.R. Kreider because he made it clear to them that they were not being acquired in the transaction but could move over if they wanted to. He said a “significant majority” accepted job offers.
“We really wanted them to want to come to B.R. Kreider,” he said.
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