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current position.“ The company was originally formed as MWI Ironworks, an iron and steel equipment manufacturer, and we trace our history back to 1926 when my great grandfather, Hoyt Eller, ran a small machine shop in Deerfield Beach,” he narrates.“ His son, Marlin Eller, took over the business and having recognized Florida’ s lack of options to combat floods and hurricanes, he shifted the focus to pumping equipment for irrigation, drainage, and flood control applications.
“ In 1928, a deadly hurricane, known as the Great Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928, hit the State of Florida and flooded Lake Okeechobee. The US President at the time was Herbert Hoover, whose government created one of the world’ s most extensive flood control systems in the world, now known as Florida’ s Water Management Districts. Several pump stations were built to control water across the state, and we played a key role in establishing the network, supplying water pumps for the system and conducting essential repairs and maintenance.
“ From this point onwards, we specialized in water pumps,” Dana states.“ In the 1960s, my dad, David Eller, joined the business and together with Marlin, they developed the Hydraflo™ pump, which revolutionized axial pumping by eliminating the requirement for great lengths of pump shafting and making the pumps much easier to use. In 1983, we purchased the Florida division of the Allis- Chambers Corporation, formerly known as the Couch Pump Company, which added two specialist manufacturing facilities to our network. We recognized the history and customer loyalty attached to the Couch name and decided to re-establish the brand.”
Alongside sales, MWI also provides professional pump rental and repair services with six locations throughout Florida.“ We started the rental division in 1968 as a complementary area of the business that enabled people to access quality pumps without huge upfront costs,” Dana reflects.“ With excess manufacturing capacity available, we leveraged the opportunity to manufacture equipment for our own fleet.
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