Line-X to strengthen market, truck beds
Matthew Weaver/Columbia Basin Herald<br>Line-X 1-2 (one person): Line-X owner Brandon Keesee said that his new business, expected to open next week, is already garnering attention from the Moses Lake community.
Owner returns to small town-style personality
MOSES LAKE — Brandon Keesee and his wife, Jana, are in for their own unique blend of newly wedded bliss.
Married in July, the Keesees will initially be the sole employees of their new Line-X business, marking its spot at 1627 W. Broadway Ave., and expected to open next week.
"We expand as we go," owner Brandon Keesee said.
Line-X is a franchise. Keesee said that there are 500 stores across the country. He was previously owner of a Line-X store in his hometown Wenatchee that he recently sold, and another one in Gilbert, Ariz.
Keesee said that he called up Line-X's corporate office to find out what locations would be available, and Moses Lake appealed to him because of its small town qualities.
"(I) wanted to come back to the small town," Keesee said. "I wanted to get back to a place kind of like Wenatchee. (Gilbert, a suburb of Phoenix) is too big; not as personal."
Keesee said that Line-X is best known for their spray-on truck bed liners. The business now offers an undercoating primarily used for winter purpose, and another product, Paxcon, is used at the Pentagon as protection against bomb blasts, he said.
"Line-X is starting to get pretty heavy in with the Navy, the Air Force and pretty much all the branches," he said. "A fairly large percentage of the Pentagon is actually sprayed with a Line-X product inside … It has a lot of characteristics of rubber — it's really flexible, but at the same time, nothing will go through it. It's as strong as concrete but it's as flexible as rubber. It's a real versatile product."
As the business gets on its feet, Keesee said that eventually more employees may be added.
"What develops from there, we kind of go from there," he said. "I guarantee we'll probably pick up at least one employee, maybe two."
Even before opening, Keesee said that his sign outside the building and his yellow Jeep have garnered a large reaction.
"I just had a guy in here that was wanting to do a fleet of trucks," he said. "People recognize the name. It's a name just like any other name — McDonald's, Wal-Mart. It's an entrepreneurial 500 company. It's very well established and very well recognized."