Sean Johnston is the new CEO of Remcon Equipment, Inc. in Airway Heights, Wash. He assumed the position Aug. 3.

"Remcon has been in business for about 40 years," Johnston said. "We build and manufacture industrial conveyor systems for recycling and mining, aggregates and agriculture companies."  

Johnston said most of the systems they build are fairly specific.  

"Some separate cans from glass and plastic bottles, which makes it easier to recycle them. Other products we build are paired with an optical sorting machine that figures out what's on the conveyor system, and then a blower separates the different material into different chutes," Johnston said. "We also build conveyors for big baling machines that crush materials into a bale."  

Johnston said they market their system internationally.  

"The U.S. and Canada purchase the majority of the product we sell," he said. “We've also sold our systems in Europe, Japan and Australia, but that only amounts to about 1% of everything the company has ever built."  

Johnston supervises a staff of eight. He said his role as CEO is twofold.  

"The first and the main focus is relationship building, so I'm on the road a lot, meeting with some old customers and trying to drum up some new business," Johnston said. "Operationally, I'm trying to figure out how to scale our team most effectively. We do a lot of custom work and it's pretty intensive on the engineering front."  

Johnston said he also wants to add new technology to the equation.  

"I've learned a lot about AI over the past few years that can really make our engineer better at his role," Johnston said. "We're not quite ready to move into the robotics space yet, but it could be in the cards in the next year or two. Right now, I just want to make sure our business systems are properly built."  

Johnston said another priority is growing the company.  

"It had about 17 employees back in the mid 2000s," he said. "The guy who ran it before was a really good engineer — built a really great product — and understood the customer's needs — but didn’t know how to effectively market his product — and grow the company. I’m hoping to exceed the number of employees he had back then.” 

    This is one of the conveyor belt systems Remcon Equipment Inc. manufactures.