by Cori Hilsgen
news@thenewsleaders.com
Owners and employees of Brenny Transportation, along with other guests, celebrated 20 years in business with an open house on June 17.
The celebration included truck rides, a truck show, truck tours where visitors could blow the truck horn, food, beverages, door prizes, music and more.
Owners Joyce Sauer Brenny and Todd Brenny, wife and husband, were busy visiting with and serving family and friends. About 400 guests attended the open house.
Joyce’s parents, Carole and Ralph Sauer, her grandmother, Loretta Dullinger, and Todd’s mother, Annette Brenny, and his grandmother, Clo Brenny, were some of the guests who enjoyed a lunch of pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, potato salad, desserts and more.
“My grandparents, Claude and Loretta Dullinger, originally trusted in us and borrowed us the money to buy the land we are located on,” Joyce said. “My grandfather is deceased, but my grandmother is 91 and still lives in her home. At our five-year celebration, she helped serve food. Today I served her – it is her time to be served.”
Brenny employee Annika Shafer attended the event with her husband, Tanner Schafer, and their two daughters – Audrey, 2, and Natallie, 3.
Schafer and five other employees dispatch 52 trucks for the business.
“It’s a fun and family-friendly work place,” she said.
Her daughters had told her they wanted to ride in one of the big trucks.
Mike and LouAnn Simon came to the celebration with their grandchildren – Renay Simon, 8, and TJ, 12. Their son, Scott Simon, is an employee of the company.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Mike said. “I see a lot of good people here.”
The event also included a silent auction to help raise money for the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center, which educates children about the Internet and personal safety. Items for the auction were donated by customers, vendors, employees and more.
“We are glad to be here and thankful to be a part of the celebration,” said Resource Center manager Alison Feigh. “We are thankful they thought of us as they were doing this big event.”
Brenny employees Ben Minke, Abbey Gooch, Erin Turcotte and Bryan Kosidowski helped organize the silent auction of around 60 items.
“We received more items than we normally collect, so it was really cool to see how much was donated,” Minke said.
In 1996, Joyce Sauer Brenny considered leaving the trucking industry and returning to college. However, after realizing how much she enjoyed working in the trucking-logistics industry and that her passion was with trucking, she decided to open her own trucking business and founded Brenny Transportation.
Joyce said she is often asked if her father or husband started the business, but she explains she did.
Joyce, who grew up in the area, said she has been involved in some form of trucking most of her life, beginning with driving trucks after graduating from high school and moving into other areas such as dispatching, customer service and more.
Todd is co-owner and vice president of the company and came on board about a year after Joyce started it.
Joyce said Brenny’s general manager, Bonnie Supan, has been an influential part of the company’s success. She was Joyce’s first employee.
When she began the business, Joyce said she wanted a company that had a high level of honesty and respect for all team members, especially the professional truck drivers.
She wanted to build the business with a foundation of values and ethics. And Joyce said she feels this is the kind of team she and Todd have created.
They try to stress to their employees the importance of doing what is right not just at work, but in life. The two encourage following the golden rule of “doing unto others what you would want done to you” in life.
The business has grown from two employees to 90. Since purchasing their first truck and trailer in 1997, Brenny Transportation has now more than 60 trucks. About six percent of the driving team is women.
Drivers travel in many directions, including the lower 48 states, Alaska and Canada.
The Brennys pride themselves on not being the biggest but the best in the business. Their policy is to offer “Grand Champion Customer Service.”
“We haven’t grown overnight,” Joyce said. “We grow when our customers need us to. Not only have we grown in the size of our employees and the number of trucks we have, we have grown to a stability where we can help our local communities by donating to many local charities.”
The Brennys hold charity work close to their hearts. As they become more successful, they strive to help surrounding foundations and businesses also become more successful.
Joyce said she believes in putting people before profits by giving both to their team of employees and also to local area needs.
“The Brenny team is truly driven to serve,” she said.
Senior safety manager Sarah Wischnefski said Joyce Brenny is not only the CEO/president of Brenny Transportation.
“She is a mentor, she teaches and counsels us in ways that could only come from someone who is also a true friend,” Wischnefski said. “Joyce uses her bachelor of arts degrees in psychology and organizational behavior to help us all. She listens to team members’ and drivers’ concerns and is on many boards of organizations to help make the trucking industry improve and make a difference.”
Joyce said she is looking forward to serving the trucking industry for many more years.
Todd Brenny and Joyce Sauer Brenny hold a cake June 17, during the 20th anniversary open-house celebration of Brenny Transportation.
Co-owners, Todd Brenny and Joyce Sauer Brenny (back, left to right) visit with their grandmothers Loretta Dullinger and Clo Brenny (front, left to right) during the Brenny Transportation 20-year open-house celebration June 17.
Owner, Joyce Sauer Brenny, (back right) visits with her parents Carole and Ralph Sauer, during the Benny Transportation 20-year open-house celebration June 17.
Brenny employee Annika Schafer (second from left) and her husband Tanner, along with their children Audrey, 2, (left) and Natallie, 3, eat lunch at the open-house celebration. Audrey and Natallie said they wanted to ride in a big truck.
Audrey Schafer, 2, and Natallie Shafer, 3, (left to right) climb up into one of the Brenny Transportation trucks. Their mother, Annika Schafer, dispatches trucks for the company.
Brenny employee Ben Minke and his daughter Nora Minke, 3, view some of the silent auction items. Minke and four other employees helped organize the auction which benefited the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center.
St. Cloud resident Estelle Carlson, 4, (front left) receives a tattoo at the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center table while Noelle Brown, 6, and Center manager Allison Feigh (back) watch.
Attendees line up in the rain for truck rides during the Brenny Transportation 20-year open-house celebration June 17.
LouAnn and Mike Simon eat lunch with their grandchildren Renay Simon, 8, (second from left) and TJ, 12, (right) at the open house. The Simons’ son, Scott, is an employee of the company.
Many attendees came out in the rain June 17 to the open house to celebrate Brenny
Transportation’s 20 years in business.
Joyce Sauer Brenny (right) visits with her grandmother, Loretta Dullinger, during the June 17 open house celebrating the company’s 20th anniversary.
Carole and Ralph Sauer (front) and other attendees dish up their lunches during the Brenny Transportation 20-year open-house celebration June 17.
