After years of hard work and dedication to customer service, Johnson Built Holdings, LLC was formed.
Founder Eric Johnson grew up outside of Aplington, Iowa as a third generation farmer. Through his formative years he assisted his father Kenny Johnson tending to livestock and growing commercial grain. In 1999 Kenny decided to move on from raising livestock and focus his efforts on growing commercial grain. After graduating high school Eric desired to be part of his fathers farming operation and in the fall of 2001 K&E Johnson Farm Partnership was created.
As a way to help supplement their farming income, K&E purchased a semi truck, grain hopper, and belt conveyer system. This allowed them to start trucking and loading seed around the state of Iowa. In the first year they developed relationships with local seed companies. Those relationships would become the backbone for their future success.
Out of a need to gently and efficiently move seed beans for their seed and grain handling business, in 2003 Eric and Kenny collaborated with Clarence Sherfield (Eric's Father-In-Law) to start manufacturing grain conveying systems. From their they created the first plywood prototypes out of the shed on their property. After perfecting the concept of their gain belt conveying system, GrainWay, LLC was founded.
Over the following years both businesses continued to grow. GrainWay continued designing new products and expanded their dealer network. K&E's cliental continued to grow and they needed a new way to gently and efficiently move seed and grain. 2006 was a big year for both companies. GrainWay introduced a drive over conveyer system and K&E made its first commercial grade grain vac purchase.
A few years later full service grain movement really became a focal part of K&E. They purchased more trucks with hoppers, grain vacs, and developed a highly efficient dispatching service. In 2009 K&E Johnson Farm Partnership was dissolved and Johnson Seed & Grain Services, LLC was born. During that same year Eric noticed the increasing demand for full service seed and grain movement and decided to step away from GrainWay, to focus on the growth of JSGS.
In 2012 Eric's vision for JSGS continued to grow and Kenny's time was being pulled more toward GrainWay. That year Eric would buy out Kenny and take on sole financial responsibility of JSGS. The goal from there was simple, take care people, products, and create a service you could trust. Not only did Eric adopt that motto for JSGS he wanted to take that motto into farming as well.
Since the inception of K&E, Eric farmed some of his own property each year. Wanting to take his farming endeavors to the next level, Eric started Impact Farms, LLC in 2015. When Impact Farms started, it consisted of about 300 acres. Eric's goal was to farm each acre to the best of his ability and that's what he did year after year. He now takes that same philosophy into the 4,500 acres he has the opportunity to farm.
During the same time Eric grew his farming operations he continued to grow JSGS. Hauling and vaccing seed for seed companies continued to be the driving force for JSGS. In the fall of 2022 Eric expanded JSGS and implemented a second location in Illinois. Currently JSGS has more than 12 self-powered grain vaccing systems and 8 semi trucks in there fleet.
For over 15 years JSGS has run 1 brand of grain vac systems, Custom Built Pneumatics. They have continued to go back to them because they are dependable, easy to operate, and easy to maintain. Custom Built Pneumatics was started by Steve Gesche in 1980. During Eric's years working with Steve they developed a close relationship. In 2023 Eric purchased the rights to start manufacturing CBP grain vac systems at his facilities in Iowa. Eric and his team manufacture pull type and truck mounted vac units as CP Pneumatics. They look forward to continuing the legacy Steve started 40 years ago.
In 2024 Johnson Built Holdings, LLC was formed. JBH employs over 35 employees under 3 different business entities, Johnson Seed & Grain Services, CB Pneumatics, and Impact Farms. Eric and his team look forward to the years to come and to continue building on the foundation that was 20 years ago.
