Gale Holsman’s American Companies: American Sweeper, Inc., American Waste Systems, Inc, and Total Venue, LLC
American Companies, Inc. is the corporate umbrella under which a vastly diverse range of services are delivered in the Kansas City market. Gale Holsman, Founder, President, and CEO of American Companies has led the expansive organization for over 40 years. The company’s several subsidiaries provide top-quality construction site services, event services, powersweeping, portable toilets, luxury restroom trailers, trash collection service, powerwashing, portering, roll-off rentals, and stage rentals, among other services.
Recently, Holsman’s company has made some exciting changes in service channels and in leadership roles. People who have followed his extraordinary career are naturally very curious about the broad implications of those transitions and about what Gale was doing during his also recent brief hiatus, and his new plans for the future of the company coming out of that period.
Merger of America Waste Systems with Countywide Disposal
In mid-2024, Gale sold some of the residential trash collection routes that were being serviced by American Waste Systems (AWS), a contingent of the American Companies group. He sold the AWS routes in a merger deal with Countywide Disposal.
Currently, American Companies is shifting more of its focus to the growth of the American Sweeping, Inc. business. Holsman’s leadership team is planning to expand that service channel for increased saturation across the KC market during the coming years. Holsman also owns Total Venue, LLC (launched in 2010), a 16-year-old portable toilet rental service for construction projects, sports venues (including Arrowhead Stadium), and special events.
Gale estimates that the American enterprise’s percent of business from each general category of services is currently around 40% restroom trailer rentals and event services, about 20% sweeping (which is targeted for growth to 50%), and 40% roll-off rentals.
As the corporate leadership team follows the plan to develop the company’s sweeping customer base, Gale notes that the roll-off rentals, special events services, Arrowhead Stadium contract service, and all other facets of operations are also continuing to grow. He says, for example, “We’re now doing everything for the FIFA event at Arrowhead, which is about sold out. And, we continue to serve about 5 or 6 cities on a number of projects.
History of Holsman’s KC Business Ventures
When we originally met Gale Holsman 7 years ago, back in 2018, he had already grown and sold a successful powersweeping company. He had changed his business model for his next endeavor from including parking lots to more exclusively larger municipal and state road contracts. He had also already grown robust portable toilet rental and roll-off rental operations by that time.
Going even further back, with American Pavement Maintenance, another early subsidiary of American Companies, Holsman rounded off pavement care services with powerwashing, striping, and other treatments (with some work performed in-house and other projects employing subs).
Gale Holsman Continues Long Track Record of Success in KC
It’s fair to say that Gale Holsman has succeeded spectacularly with everything he’s done over the past 40 years along his midwestern entrepreneurial journey. American Companies, including American Sweeping, Inc., American Waste Systems, Inc., and Total Venue, LLC have all performed impressively over time as part of the thriving enterprise under his direction.
His longest-time customer, Arrowhead Stadium, has been with him since the very beginning when Gale founded the company in 1984. That’s quite a testament to the top-tier service quality he and his team have consistently delivered over the past four decades. In our 2018 interview, he recalled the start of that lasting business relationship:
“I was working for Waste Management as a local sales manager. I had the opportunity to buy a sweeper truck, so I bought it. The first weekend business I got was with the Michael Jackson Victory tour. Jackson put on a three-day concert here. It was my first job, to sweep the parking lot at Arrowhead for that show. They liked me. Today (2018), we have 350 portable toilets in the stadium lots.
From that starting point, he went on to start sweeping Kmarts, Walmarts, many other major customers, and large events through the years, with the full scope of the company’s services. For example, the Santa Cali Gon Days Festival, FIFA events, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade (and others), Oktoberfest (one of the biggest events in the country), just to name a few.
Shannon Holsman Steps into Increased Leadership Role
Gale explains that the big news now is that his daughter, Shannon Holsman-Lock, Vice President of American Companies, has assumed responsibility for managing the entire complex of companies, effective January 2026. He noted that he will still continue receiving daily reports of activities, and calls for guidance and other help, as needed, and will stay fully apprised of what’s going on in the business. But, Shannon will assume full responsibility for running the company, which she has, in effect, increasingly been doing for a while now.
Shannon commented, “It’s kind of a fun thing that we’re doing right now. We’re 40+ years down the line, but we’re moving back into the sweeping more, with a lot of new players in the game.” We’re angling things differently as we’re coming back into growth mode of that service line. And, we’re just kind of redoing our sweeping service model, focusing more on concierge sweeping needs, vs. route management.”
Gale added, “A lot of the sweeping we did through in the ‘80s and ‘90s was on scheduled routes. The goal now is concierge work. You can get your seasonal after-snow clean-up, get your construction sites ready, etc. We want to be the deep cleaning guys. So, we’re redoing the brand to reflect that.
We’re emphasizing services like track out, powerwashing, scrubbing, cleaning inside warehouses, garages, using the flusher truck washer, etc.” We’ll also continue the same kinds of growth we’ve realized over the years in the rolloffs, portable toilets, and luxury restroom trailers. They’ll grow too.
American Relying on ODRA for Future of the Business
At this point, under our new brand, we have 8 sweeper trucks. They’re Eagles, ODRAs, (all air vac machines), Victorys, Schwarzes, and Tennants (for inside and scrubbing). We do not do milling. We’re leaving that to others. We recently bought two new ODRA sweepers. The ODRAS have proven to be ideal for streets and light site cleanup. So, we’ve started our new brand with the ODRAS, and we will buy more of those.
What I like about ODRAs is that they’re simple. They don’t require a CDL. That opens up an additional operating role for drivers conveniently for us. When we bought our first ODRA machine, our salesman was so great. He showed us everything. He convinced me. All their people are very nice and helpful. They even took us out and demonstrated on a construction site.
We went to their assembly plant in North Dakota and toured the entire facility. Everybody was very friendly. We visited the electrical, the hydraulic, and every other department. When we left, we had good confidence in the company. So, we got two ODRAs, and we’re planning to buy more in the future when we need trucks.
The Holsman KC Team – Among the Industry’s Finest
Much of our new business is from word of mouth by business owners and property managers. Longevity naturally brings customers. Everybody that works for me is in sales. We still go out and bid for jobs. We have 3 dedicated salespeople, including me and Shannon. But we also have our 12 sweeping truck drivers and portable toilet delivery drivers.
When we get into spring, the phone always rings off the hook. The only worry then is about getting more drivers and more equipment. Shannon has sent out email blasts, flyer campaigns, and the team has been phone calling property managers and other customers to let them know about the new sweeping service initiative and our new branding.
Our sales staff does bidding and makes sure we have a lot of good communication with the business community. Our drivers are bringing in referrals. We give a lot of incentives of different kinds for sales referred by employees. The whole team is doing an excellent job of getting the word out.
We reward the employees a lot. I like doing things for them. I like to give trips and special events to people for performance rewards, vs. just handing them a $10 bill. We’ve taken staff on a trip to Las Vegas, to Florida, etc., and we’ve sponsored a lot of fun local outings over the years. We did a World of Fun day with employees and their kids, and we took everyone to a Rose game. We sponsored a Cheese Game, with a party trailer and a VIP setup. We also took 77 to 80 people to a KC Chiefs game, including their spouses, kids, or other guests.
Holsman Business Philosophy & Methodology
In our 2018 meeting with Gale Holsman, his motivational message was powerful and still is today: “Being big is not the idea. Being big is not the program. Grow, grow, gone. Our objective is to provide service for the book of work we have so we can have good account retention. We spend all of our time on account retention. We want to provide the best service, so our customers have no reason to go to our competitors.”
His advice for new business owners in the industry continued, “But, charge enough to do well in business. Charge for your services. Don’t be afraid to charge for your services. Otherwise, you can’t provide good employees and service. If you can’t afford to do business, then your customers can’t stay with you.”
He further reflected, “At the end of the day, all you have left is your reputation. We know our reputation rides on the perceptions of our company, which is represented by our trucks, containers, uniforms, etc. Everything has to be first class. Perception is everything.”
Finally, he emphasized, “All companies want to grow, because that’s the reward — growth in equipment, number of employees, benefits, the quality of the home base where you house your equipment, etc. Everything has to do with growth. So, you must have a plan that includes a roadmap to where you want to be.
You need to know where you are and want to be in a given timeframe. We discuss this in our weekly managers’ meetings. We discuss where we are, where we want to go, and how we’re going to get there. We look at our wishlist and match it with the numbers.
Wait, What Was Gale Doing During His Hiatus?
As mentioned, Gale is now back after a small hiatus from the business. I’m turning 70 next year, and Shannon will be running this thing. She’s moving into the role of running all the company’s operations solo, and I’m going to Florida.
We won a business award in 2002. But, the greatest thing I think an individual can do in a business is build a good company and have their kid take it over. I’m excited about her expanding her horizons. She’s been taking care of the website, admin, HR, and growth. She deals with customers. Her role won’t change in any of those ways. The changeover is happening now, as of Jan 1, 2026.
I still get my reports every day. Meanwhile, I’m investing in houses and flipping houses at Lake of the Ozarks. I love it. My lovely wife retired and sold her Harley dealerships in Kansas City and St. Louis. She’s now on Hutchinson Island, developing a Vbro rental. I’ll be joining her there. We’re spending half and half time between Florida and Missouri. Last year, in June, we sold our residential and commercial routes of American Waste Systems. In January, I sold my last transfer station. But we still have our classic cars.
So, why the apparent return to the helm by Gale? It appears to be more of a lateral role he’s assumed along with Shannon to guide the transition.” The cool thing about it is why I do this. There’s Joe at the lake with our house flipping, there’s Florida and the ocean, and there’s a hand in running a great business that my daughter will now lead. What I’ve done, and what I continue to do, I am fortunate to be able to do.
You’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with, and I’m fortunate to have the best people to work with in all these endeavors. With their support, I can be confident in doing well in everything I take on, and I’ll certainly never be bored.”
For information about American Companies, Inc., you can call (816) 966-1161, or visit americancompanieskc.com.