Engineer’s entrepreneurial passion fuels success in global farming and forestry manufacturing business

Not several businesspeople could lay claim to possessing introduced their to start with business — whilst even now in grammar university.

But at 10 years of age, Mark Sauer persuaded his father to support him finance the acquisition of a tractor, so that he could start out a garden mowing small business in his hometown of Schoolcraft, Michigan, a smaller farming community found 150 miles west of Detroit.

“It was my very first practical experience to fully grasp what financing devices was like, and I experienced borrowed money to get a mowing tractor and was incredibly lively in the community, mowing as many yards as I could during the summers and going perfectly into drop,” Sauer stated. “That was my to start with foray into smaller business enterprise possession and remaining an entrepreneur.”

Currently, Sauer is however in the farm tools organization, even though his purchaser base has expanded pretty a bit from the days of mowing neighbors’ lawns. As proprietor and president of Savannah World Options, Sauer leads a 30-particular person corporation that would make machines utilised in the forestry and agricultural industries in soil and site planning operate. Savannah Worldwide has buyers in extra than 30 countries all over the environment.

Sauer is the Ga Production Extension Partnership’s (GaMEP) June Facial area of Producing.

He is 1 of more than 365,000 men and women who kind Georgia’s manufacturing industry, a essential section of the state’s financial system. Sauer’s everyday living and vocation in producing serves as just a single example of how all those in the sector engage in an integral section in encouraging to retain their local communities and the condition in general economically aggressive.

Nevertheless assessments he took as youthful person recommended he would be fantastic at a profession in forestry, the severe winters of the Midwest had him thinking of other alternatives and pursuits. Owning an aptitude for math and science, Sauer centered his energies on industrial engineering and arithmetic, earning degrees in equally from Western Michigan University.

But he also had a enjoy for devices. It was a discovery produced in higher university when he worked in a machine store. He discovered that he liked to picture parts, draw them on paper, and then make a physical solution.

That job, as effectively as other folks he subsequently held, allowed him to build the abilities he would require to run his corporation.

Other than doing work as a machinist’s apprentice, Sauer also took positions as a millwright assistant, worked at an industrial paint company in payroll and estimating, and assisted on a preventative routine maintenance system.

He also discovered about supervising procedures and startup groups in a placement he took at a cereal company on graduating college.

“Every position I’ve had gave me the knowledge to get me to where by I am right now,” Sauer stated.

Many organizations afterwards, Sauer experienced an prospect to acquire a management position with a small forestry company just outside Savannah.

“It was apparent I was likely to have to don a whole lot of hats,” Sauer claimed, detailing the business only experienced 10 personnel at the time. “My knowledge in engineering, revenue, and system and product administration, coupled with my background in producing, the paper industry, and growing up on a farm created the work at Savannah Forestry Tools a best match.”

Two a long time afterwards, the operator of the company, a native Australian, expressed a need to return residence, and Sauer saw it as an prospect to put an financial commitment group collectively to obtain the organization.

Following the acquisition, Sauer decided to expand and diversify the enterprise to far better address the cyclical challenges of the forestry industry. The company fulfilled customized venture orders and built pieces each on-web page and in the field. He also adjusted the company’s name to Savannah World-wide Solutions to mirror its system of creating an intercontinental shopper foundation.

That strategy was key, Sauer mentioned, outlining 95 percent of the company’s business enterprise was in the Southeast. A self-explained calculated possibility taker, Sauer felt specified it was a gamble that would pay back off: the organization now sells 50 p.c of its products to abroad customers in more than 30 nations. That accomplishment has led to recognition for the business and its influence on the point out overall economy. In 2014, Savannah World Alternatives was named Georgia Little Exporter of the Calendar year.

“As a kid, my area was two miles on a lawnmower,” Sauer mentioned. “Today, it is the overall earth.”

About Savannah International Options

Dependent in Pembroke, Georgia, Savannah Worldwide Options employs 30 individuals and is a leader in the forestry cultivation sector. At first started as Savannah Forestry Equipment, the organization manufactures tools to address soil and site planning wants in forestry and agriculture.

Found on the I-16 corridor 30 miles west of Savannah, the corporation has straightforward access to the Port of Savannah, which helps to support the progress of its exporting company, with profits in much more than 30 countries throughout 4 continents.

About the Faces of Manufacturing 

Every thirty day period, GaMEP highlights a distinctive human being as the Deal with of Manufacturing. Options are made by a committee composed of associates from Georgia Tech, economic enhancement teams, production organizations, and related associations.