When Greg Grotegut was 25 years old, his parents gifted him his first portable restroom for Christmas. Nearly two decades later, that single unit has grown into an inventory of 250 at Maynard’s Neat-N-Clean Portables, based in Newton, Wisconsin. Along with the portable restrooms, Grotegut’s company is pursuing other unique initiatives such as converting shipping containers into restroom facilities for construction sites.

And all that time, he has evolved his company while still maintaining a full-time job in a different capacity, currently as a county highway commissioner.

“I still do this as kind of a hobby,” Grotegut, 44, says of his portable restroom business.

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

Grotegut’s journey in the portable sanitation industry started while working as a heavy-equipment operator in the early 2000s. He was tasked with digging out basements for new-home construction, and because of that role, he was always aware of the need for portable restrooms on job sites.

“I was always the first one on the site, so I was often having to hit up the homebuilders for portable toilets,” Grotegut says.

He recognized a good business opportunity, so in April 2004 — a few months after receiving the gift of a first unit from his parents — he bought 28 more restrooms and formally established Maynard’s. The Maynard name comes from a longtime nickname of Grotegut’s, bestowed upon him by his seven older siblings from the name of a child character in an old Malt-O-Meal TV commercial.

“I’ve just tried to continually grow the business throughout the years,” Grotegut says.

Despite being new to the portable sanitation industry, Grotegut had some advantages as he built his business. After growing up on a large dairy farm in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, he went to school to be a diesel mechanic.

“So I was able to work on my own equipment,” Grotegut says. “Otherwise I learned a lot as I went. I read a lot. I went to the WWETT Show right away, early on in those first couple of years, and I’ve basically attended every other year since.”

HELPING HANDS

Within five years, Grotegut had grown his restroom inventory to 100 units and hired his first full-time employee. Now his larger inventory includes Satellite Industries Maxim 3000s — as well as 30 hand-wash stations (Satellite Waves and Tag 4s), 12 ADA units, a Satellite Suites restroom trailer, and most recently converted shipping container restroom facilities.

Grotegut has two full-time employees — Scott Manlick, a route driver, and Theresa Haupt, an office employee. Scott Christiansen works as a route driver part time seasonally and Grotegut’s wife Bobbi also assists with some office work. Even his daughters, Ella, 11, and Olivia, 8, help occasionally when not in school with tasks like restocking inventory at events. The company services three counties — Manitowoc, Sheboygan and Calumet — in eastern Wisconsin. Construction makes up about three-quarters of the company’s workload, with event work and the agricultural sector covering the remainder.

In the beginning, Grotegut worked out of his home, but in 2012 he built a new office/shop setup, complete with features he knew would be beneficial and convenient. There are upper and lower decks to maximize restroom storage. The facility is heated and has a 2-inch waterline running into it that is used for filling the trucks’ water tanks and making equipment washdown easier.

“I had a good idea what I wanted based on those early days in business,” Grotegut says. “It was challenging in the beginning not being able to bring equipment into a heated space and wash it up in the winter months.”

BALANCING ACT

The entire time Grotegut has owned and operated Maynard’s Neat-N-Clean Portables, he has had something competing for his attention — another job.

Currently that job is Manitowoc County highway commissioner and Grotegut spends a full 40-hour work week supervising a crew of 50. He has worked for the highway department in some capacity since 2007 and has been in the commissioner role for almost two years. Prior to that he had retained his job as a heavy equipment operator, even when he made the move into the portable restroom business.

“It’s challenging balancing things,” Grotegut says. “It hasn’t been as bad since I got to the highway department, but as a heavy-equipment operator there were definitely some long days. I’d be operating equipment all day and then usually doing restroom routes at night and on weekends.”

Grotegut is a testament to the importance of delegation. He points to his employees as the reason why he can get away with spending a significant portion of the week away from the restroom business. He does 10-hour workdays Monday through Thursday in his highway commissioner role.

“I have great employees,” Grotegut says. “I have time on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays to manage a lot of the events work, but for the most part, my employees take care of a majority of the day-to-day operations when I’m focused on highway commissioner duties.”

But dual sources of revenue have been particularly beneficial at times. For example, when the 2008 recession hit and Maynard’s Neat-N-Clean Portables was still a fairly young business trying to establish itself.

“It was a little bit of a struggle then, but I made it through. I was lucky to have two jobs,” Grotegut says.

CONTAINER RESTROOMS

A recent initiative for Maynard’s Neat-N-Clean Portables is converting 20-foot shipping containers into restrooms for construction sites. Like moving into the portable restroom business in the first place, it came about from Grotegut simply observing conditions and noticing an opportunity.

“There’s a lot of commercial construction in our area. Sheboygan County in particular is booming,” Grotegut says. “There are a lot of apartment complexes going up. We recently had a large job for Lakeland College. Boldt Construction is on an almost 2-year project.

“Many contractors seem to want hand-wash stations on their jobs longer and longer, especially with COVID-19. We thought containers would be a good way for them to just have heated facilities with flushable toilets and sinks. And the containers are more commercial. They’re lower to the ground and heavy-duty. They’ll hold up better than a restroom trailer for these workers on construction sites.”

The company finished the first container toward the end of 2020. A second container was completed in 2021. They are heated with toilet stalls, urinals, sinks and separate men’s and women’s facilities. They haven’t had a lot of job site experience yet, but the feedback so far has been positive, Grotegut says.

“We’re going to see how these first two go before we build any more,” he says. “It won’t be a fit for every job. It’s kind of a site-specific thing. It’s not something where you’ll move in for a month and move out. It will be longer projects of a year or two that these will be going on. I foresee getting into manufacturing them a little heavier if the demand is there.”

Grotegut’s seasonal employee, Christiansen, is a retired plumber and was a helpful asset for getting the restroom containers built out. Grotegut also recently acquired some new equipment for maintaining the containers — a 2022 Ford F-600 with an 800-gallon waste/500-gallon freshwater tank built out by Imperial Industries with a National Vacuum Equipment 304 pump and heated valves.

“This truck is fully set up to service these containers all winter long with no issues,” Grotegut says. “We’ll be able to haul out freshwater all winter. We never had a need for that before.”

The new truck joins a small fleet that includes a 2018 Ford F-550 with a 750-gallon waste/400-gallon freshwater tank built out by Best Enterprises and a 2007 Dodge with a 300-gallon waste/300-gallon freshwater tank from T-Line Equipment. Both trucks are also equipped with National Vacuum Equipment 304 pumps.

FORWARD THINKING

Grotegut’s goal for Maynard’s Neat-N-Clean Portables is to continue on its gradual growth trajectory. And while it may still be too early to know for sure what the demand will be for his shipping container restroom facilities, that is an area that he hopes he can develop more. He’s already been seeing increased demand for his luxury restroom trailer.

“I bought it for all four seasons, and I’m glad I did because it’s been going out more and more,” Grotegut says. “It seems to be a good fit for the area.

“I think the future of this whole business is going to be restroom trailers and containers, those types of nicer facilities.”