Foley Industries and its three operating entities, Foley Equipment Company, Foley Rental and Foley Rebuild Center, have each been officially certified as a Women Business Enterprise (WBE) by the National Women Business Owners Corporation (NWBOC).

Many public corporations as well as local, state and federal government purchasing agencies have programs for allotting a certain percentage of business to women-owned companies. Foley has been woman owned and managed since Ann Konecny, president and CEO, assumed the leadership role in 1997.

“Over the last year, we’ve had increasing requests from customers that we get certified,” said Konecny. “It’s a rigorous and time-consuming process but we felt it would be worth the investment. Certainly, our WBE status is not the most important thing. Understanding our customers’ needs and exceeding their expectations is much more important. However, we are hopeful that our WBE certification will help grow our business.”

Any woman-owned business can apply for WBE Certification if the company meets the criteria of majority ownership of at least 51 percent. NWBOC also requires that the woman has day-to-day control of the business in which she is the final decision maker for all aspects of the business — financial, production, contracting, etc., or has delegated that authority to an employee manager or another partial owner.

Foley Equipment is a full-line Caterpillar dealer serving 104 of 105 counties in Kansas and 40 counties in central and northwest Missouri, including the Kansas City metro area with sales, rental, parts, service, product support and technology and productivity solutions for Cat machines and other lines of construction equipment, engines, generators as well as Terex Utility Trucks.

This story also appears on Truck and Trailer Guide.