Our family was raised on hard work, honesty, and innovation

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A long but necessary journey for the family, the Kois family immigrated to the United States, initially landing a mining job in Leadville, Colorado but later on using the Homestead Act to settle in eastern Colorado. Gene and George would grow up learning to farm and adopting a knack for fixing things, but ultimately the brothers credit their success to their parents "I thank our parents that taught us to work hard" -George Kois.

Enter the Woeber family, who originally immigrated from Bavaria and settled in Denver, Colorado. In 1867, bankrolled by his brother Amandus, Adam Woeber at the age of 30 moved to Denver in the Territory of Colorado and started a branch company. He named it A. Woeber & Company, which was later changed to Woeber Brothers Carriage Works. For many years the shop that was located on 11th between Larimer and Walnut street. The Woeber Brothers built and repaired everything from clunky ore wagons that hauled rock, gold, and silver, to the finest carriages prized by Denver’s elite. 

Woeber had an advantage over the competition from mid-western states because their carriages were built in Colorado with wood that was seasoned here in arid Colorado weather, so it didn’t split and was easier to maintain. In 1871, the carriage works began building horse drawn trolleys for the Denver Horse Railroad Company where the initial route was only about two miles long, running down Larimer from Seventh down to Sixteenth. By 1884 the service expanded to forty five cars, two hundred horses, and one hundred employees servicing downtown Denver. In 1883, the Woeber Brothers were contracted to build one of the most famous horse drawn trolleys in Colorado for the Southside Investment Company, the Cherrelyn Horse Car.

With the invention of the horseless carriage, the company diversified with the changing technologies and began to build bodies that were attached to work trucks. in the late 1950's the polish hailing Kois Brothers had left eastern Colorado and moved to Denver. Brothers Gene and George both took jobs at Woeber.

In 1967, the Federal Air Quality Act was passed by congress. With this new law it became illegal to burn trash. Gene had been selling Garwood trash collection bodies to trash haulers around Colorado and knew that the new law would necessitate the use of trash storage containers.  Woeber Auto Body built a couple containers, but the current owners Carl Sr.’s sons, Carl Jr. and Robert, had no interest in building the trash cans and thought it would be a short run product with very little demand.

George and Gene Kois felt differently, so they convinced the Woeber to allow them to build solid waste containers as a part time venture, establishing Kois Brothers Equipment Company in 1968.

With input from their customers, the Kois Brothers designed and built various sizes of rear load containers and rented a small facility at 4975 A W. 80th Ave in Westminster, Colorado. They had a Saturday open-house and by the end of the day had orders for over one hundred containers. This success brought long working hours for the brothers, who still worked full time at Woeber Auto Body and built trash containers in the Westminster shop at night and on weekends.  Within six months, the brothers resigned from Woeber and were building and repairing trash containers of all sizes full time in a building near the Denver Stock Yards located at 4755 Humboldt Street. The company worked from this location for nearly two years.

In 1971, at the appeal of Colorado National Bank and Garwood Industries the Kois Brothers purchased the assets of the now bankrupt Woeber Auto Body in a sheriff’s auction. Shortly thereafter they moved into the old Woeber Auto Body building at 4950 Jackson Street. In a very short time the brothers were not only building trash containers, but were right back doing what they had done while working for Woeber Auto Body- building and selling truck bodies and equipment.

With the opportunity to expand the company and with much help from Errol Goulet, the Kois Brothers opened two branch locations in the State of Montana, one in Great Falls in 1990 and Billings in 1994.

The company’s core business has always been full line truck equipment with particular expertise in Solid Waste Collection Equipment and Snow Removal Equipment.  As with the original Woeber Brothers Carriage Works, Kois Brothers Equipment Company is recognized for the highest quality products and equipment installations.