1989

Young and eager Bruce Robbins went on to start his own controls company in Lexington, Ky. He did not have a name yet but he was eager to get started. On a flight back from his first site visit he was asked what the name of his company would be. He didn’t know but was put on the spot and had to come up with a name, with the company being in Lexington which is Fayette County it made sense to keep the name with his Kentucky roots. He replied Lafayette Engineering. Our journey started as a young man trying to come up with a name and has turned into one of the most well-known controls companies around the United States.  

1989

Bruce was trying to secure Lafayette’s first major controls job. He was on the phone the whole day and before the nurse interrupted him he was able to close that sale before hanging up. The reason a nurse interrupted him was that it was about time for his second son to be born. He had just closed Lafayette’s first major job from the delivery room of the hospital. It’s ironic that same Son that was born on that day has his fathers drive and is also the one who has done a lot of controls for that same customer. 

1990

Lexington was a great place for Lafayette to start but as the business had become sustainable and there wasn’t a need to be in one of the largest city’s in Kentucky Bruce wanted to move Lafayette closer to his home in Danville, Ky. Doing this would make it easier to be a family company as most of his family was from this area as well. As Lafayette has grown we have tried to take every step to keep it as family-oriented as possible. Today Bruce’s wife, 3 sons, brother, Daughter in law, sister in law, and brother in law play a crucial part to Lafayette’s Success. As a single person, we can accomplish very little but together we can accomplish anything. 

1993

Moved to Letton Road

1993

ConveyorWorks  

2000

Expanded Letton Road to double the room we had 

2012

Moved to 2405 Lebanon Road went from (6k sq ft-60k sq ft)

2013

When Bruce and Beth started Lafayette he did not want to be conveyor integrator. He wanted Lafayette to focus on learning all conveyor to be able to give the customer the best system for their building no matter what company it was. As Lafayette grew it became apparent that we needed to find a conveyor manufacturer with the same beliefs as we do with customer getting the best system for their money and sustainability being key. We found that in Hytrol Conveyor but wanted to create a separate company to handle the relationship as Lafayette is known as a controls team. We thought it would be best to keep Lafayette as the controls group and create Southern Conveyor to handle the mechanical Engineering. Since Southern Conveyor was created in 20xx they have went on to be a top Hytrol integrator each year till today.

2015

Lafayette teamed up with Hytrol Conveyor to create a Hytrols warehouse control system called Pivot 

2015

Lafayette Transit was created with Bruce and Beth purchasing their first jet. A risky move but a move that has changed Lafayette’s culture. Why you may ask. Its simple Lafayette’s main focus is to be able to support their customers. After 9/11 all travel become more difficult and if a customer was having trouble it could take a day before we could get to them if it was an emergency. We could now not only be a customers facility in less than a day but able to be at multiple customers on that same day. 

2017

California office was created to support Lafayette’s customers on the west coast.

2017

Century Conveyor joined the Lafayette team. This partnership provided