NORTH KITSAP — With feet planted in liquid waste, Randy Bauer saw a opening for a small business he couldn’t refuse.
After 12 years of pumping septic tanks and watching all the small portable toilet businesses be sell out to bigger guys, Bauer felt a need to bring a local business back into the world of portable restrooms.
“I thought there had to be a local guy,” Bauer said. “So I went out and bought 24 sani-cans and there it started.”
It took a shade more than decade to build business, but in 11 years Bauer has seen a steady growth throughout North Kitsap.
“Like any small business owner, you scrape all your nickels together and go buy them and cross your fingers and hope it works out,” Bauer said.
Even with clients and sani-cans in the hundreds, Bauer maintains a small workforce of about five full-time employees. Seasonal hires help out during the hectic summer months.
It takes two employees — often times Bauer himself — working long hours to go to the sani-cans at sites and thoroughly clean them once a week. But for Bauer it’s a small business worth every effort.
“It’s been really good to us and I won’t complain,” Bauer said. “The service will always be there. There’s always a need for it.”
Clients request the portable toilets for use during home renovations, private parties and recreational events. Construction workers, too, rely on them.
“We’ve been using them and we’re really happy with their service,” said Vikki Olsen of Tim Ryan’s Construction. “They’re really ready to respond and deliver as soon as we call them. We have multiple jobs in the Kitsap area and they service county-wide.”
Three years ago Bauer hitched himself to the “go green” wagon. Partnering with Virginia-based Earth Friendly Chemicals he offers eco-friendly sanitizing solutions in some of the dirtiest places.
“Everybody uses the blue juice, we use green,” Bauer said.
Randy-Kan Portable Restrooms is currently the only local portable restroom business to offer a non-toxic solvent to sanitize portable toilets.
Bauer was skeptical about the switch at first, but soon he saw his business flourish with his decision.
“We’ve recently started the LEED program (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) here with building green and I know they’re concerned with environmental issues as well,” Olsen said. “Really good customer service, clean sani-can facilities — those are all very important issues to us.”
With the motto “be wise, sanitize,” Bauer makes sure that not only does he use products that are safe for the environment, but he raises the bar on the standards of clean.
“That’s the thing that bothers me about the industry, you grab a scrub brush and spray it down. I don’t see that as being clean,” Bauer said. “We go the extra mile, we use all eco-friendly products. The standard clean just doesn’t do it.”
Bauer has made a stamp in the community over the years. Donating sani-cans for local fund raising and community events like the development of Kingston’s Village Green Park, Stillwaters Environmental Center’s Ecofest and Port Gamble’s Bark for Life cancer walk have created a great base recognition for his company.
“We can’t do them all but we try to be selective and do stuff in our area. We try to support those types of events that are held up in the North End,” Bauer said. “There had to be a local person. We try to keep everything local.”
