WALLA WALLA, WA - Bringing new technology to market is tough work, and luckily for Key Technology—a member of the Duravant family of operating companies—it has a new leader to make these efforts even easier. The company recently appointed John Dykstra as its Director of Service Operations for North America, South America, and the Asia-Pacific. In this new role, Dykstra will be responsible for overseeing Duravant’s SupportPro aftermarket services at Key to help customers operate and maintain their digital sorters, specialized conveyors, and other processing equipment at peak performance.

“Key’s customers receive exceptional aftermarket support, and we see opportunities to add even more value, such as offering new upgrade and retrofit packages, further enhancing our remote monitoring services, and deploying more customer training courses. We believe aftermarket services should proactively work to improve customers’ operations,” said Dykstra. “The sky is the limit in terms of where we can take SupportPro, and I am excited to be a part of it.”

According to a press release, SupportPro provides installation and start-up services, training, preventative maintenance, and 24/7 emergency assistance as well as remote monitoring, protection plans, upgrades, parts, and more.

Dykstra brings ten years of leadership experience managing high-performance service and sales teams. Most recently, he was Manager of Global Parts Business Development, Power Systems at Kohler Company. Prior to that, he was Senior Aftermarket Support Manager at Oshkosh Corporation-Pierce Manufacturing. Dykstra holds a Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership and Quality from Marian University and an MBA from St. Norbert College.

“When food processors buy from Key, they’re getting more than state-of-the-art equipment—they get world-class service and complete lifecycle support,” said Hans Van der Aa, President of SupportPro at Duravant. “SupportPro is Duravant’s global service organization, which serves customers across all our brands including Key. Our worldwide network enables us to provide around the clock help, with local offices that quickly ship OEM parts and deploy nearby field service technicians with the right expertise to customers in need.”

Carson Brennan, President of Key Technology – Americas & APAC, added, “John is the ideal person to lead our SupportPro efforts. He has a lot of experience managing and growing successful aftermarket organizations. High quality service differentiates Key from other suppliers, and John’s dedication to continuous improvement and to forging strong relationships will help us identify new ways we can serve customers.”

Congratulations to John Dykstra on this new role!

Key Technology