Servicing a Championship

Michigan PROs use each other’s strengths to take on an annual LPGA tournament

Mar 11, 2025 | by Peter Kenter |

Servicing a Championship — Gretchen Menard of Swanky Trailers and Ray Birchmeier of R&D Septic combined efforts, trailers, portable restrooms and their experience to tackle a large and upscale golf event in their area.

THE EVENT

The Dow Championship is the newly minted name for the LPGA Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational Tournament, which has been held in the Great Lakes Bay Region since 2019. It’s the LPGA’s signature annual team event, featuring 72 two-person teams completing 72 holes in both alternate shot (foursome) and best ball (foursome) formats. The event is held at the Midland Country Club in Midland, Michigan, and features a purse of $3 million. The 2024 tournament was held June 27-30.

THE COMPANIES

The event has been serviced by two PROs — Swanky Restroom Trailers of Holly, Michigan, and R&D Septic Tank Cleaning of New Lothrop, Michigan — who have co-operated in servicing a large number of events over the years, including all of the LPGA Dow Championship annual events from 2019 on. The contract for the LPGA event is with Outlyr, a national company specializing in professional golf event planning.

Gretchen Menard founded Poopy’s Potties LLC in 1998, primarily serving construction contractors. But feeling stressed by 100-hour workweeks, she let all of her employees go in 2006 and sold all but 50 of the company’s 300 restrooms. Instead, she concentrated on small events and weddings, which she handled herself. She founded Swanky Restroom Trailers in 2009 and purchased five restroom trailers, which she’s since used to provide service to film and television productions, weddings and special events. She’s also provided luxury restrooms for both presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

But customer interest in Poopy’s Potties continued, even after she sold off most of the inventory. Unwilling to turn away business, Menard struck up a partnership with the owner of R&D, Ray Birchmeier — a PRO she met at a professional event — who agreed to pay her a commission for any business she brought him.

“Ray understands that it’s my branding that drives a lot of this business,” Menard says. “I’ve been in the industry a long time and I know how to reach out to customers. When restrooms arrive with an R&D logo, customers don’t mind, because the units are clean and well-kept.”

Birchmeier launched R&D in 2004 with a single pumper truck and 10 portable restrooms as a way to add stable income to the uncertainties of operating a dairy farm. The portable restroom business continued to prosper after the family left the dairy business in 2012, although they continue to farm 1,600 acres of corn, soy and wheat.

Before Menard sold all of her portable restrooms, and when R&D was starting out, the companies often pooled their resources to bid on larger jobs, allowing Birchmeier to ramp up his operation.

“The partnership with Gretchen is great for both of us,” he says. “She earns a commission and probably 95% of our restroom trailer business is booked by her. She takes the deposit, lines up the schedule and sets up the times I meet with the customer. It saves me from having to hire an extra employee to handle these details.”

Birchmeier already employs 13 people, including his wife, two daughters and brother. After working the LPGA contract for a number of years, he sees staffing his business as a bigger challenge than servicing the well-planned event.

“Often, when I put out a help wanted ad, I get no response at all,” Birchmeier says. “I understand that nobody is sitting in high school and saying, ‘I can’t wait until I graduate so I can pump restrooms.’ Usually, only the children of parents who own the company think of this as a career path.”

He currently employs five female drivers. “I welcome any candidate who wants to work, and these female drivers have been doing a great job,” he says. “I wish I had more of them.”

BY THE NUMBERS

Today Menard owns six Swanky-branded trailers: four two-room and one one-room trailers from Comforts of Home Services and one two-room trailer from DRE Custom Trailers.

Birchmeier owns 1,000 portable restrooms manufactured by Satellite Industries and 11 Swanky-branded luxury trailers from Comforts of Home Services. Five self-built hauling trailers are used for portable restroom delivery: two 10-place trailers, in addition to a 12-place, 14-place and 16-place.

His five pump trucks are self-built 2021/22 Ford F-550 with stainless steel tanks (600 gallons waste/300 water) with pumps by Advance Pump & Equipment. R&D also operates two septic pumpers, Peterbilts with 4,000-gallon stainless steel tanks featuring Masport pumps and built out by Advance Pump & Equipment.

SETTING UP THE SHOT

The 2024 edition of the LPGA event required 75 portable restrooms plus an additional seven ADA-compliant units, and six three-station Swanky-branded trailers.

“We also supplied seven four-person Satellite hand-sanitizing stations,” Menard says. “They’re very conscious of water conservation, so no sinks using water were requested.”

In addition, the contract involves pumping six additional restroom units with flush toilets ordered on a separate contract by NBC, the broadcaster reporting on the event.

The Midland Country Club is located about 60 miles north of R&D headquarters. Birchmeier begins placing the units about four days before the event.

“We’re setting up for both the golfers and for spectators,” he says. “We’re told exactly where they want them placed, so that they remain off-camera as much as possible.”

KEEPIN’ IT CLEAN

Birchmeier uses three pump trucks and six employees to service the LPGA event. Crews show up each evening between 8 and 9 p.m.

“We’re doubling up on each truck to make the service faster,” he says. “One person will pump, while the other will clean and restock the units.” Menard remains on point, acting as the liaison between Outlyr and R&D.

All waste is delivered to a disposal site about 15 minutes from the course.