Tag: 2013 Contractor of the Year

Success Stories

South Dakota contractor’s work in his small town’s moment of crisis provides framework for growth

Each February, Gale Nitteberg, his wife Sandy and their grandchildren pack up and head south for about a month to escape the harsh South Dakota winter for the warm beaches of Florida. He says years ago he and his wife talked about leaving South Dakota and maybe moving somewhere warmer, but it was never something […]

April 1, 2014

Business

Family’s love of equipment, disciplined work ethic grew R.L. Caudill Construction into a company that’s hard to compete with

Robert L. Caudill started a small construction company in eastern Kentucky nearly 50 years ago. But today, at age 73, even though he’s handed the reins of the company to his sons, you still hear one complaint about the old man: “He will work you to death,” says Charles Carlton, Pike County Fiscal Court. In […]

February 28, 2014

Contractor of the Year

How one 3rd-generation paver expanded the family business into concrete, sealcoating

Operating the business started by his late father Dale, third-generation contractor Chris Fink knows a thing or two about paving. Performing a mix of public and private work; residential and commercial, Chris is known throughout the Shreveport area as being a leader and a go-getter. With the help of his wife, Tracey, who handles much […]

December 30, 2013

Business

Knocked down by the recession, how contractor Michael Thibault came up with a plan to win at T-Bone Construction

Mike Thibault has a favorite quote: “The harder I work, the luckier I get,” he says with a big Colorado grin. But when the recession hit it brought problems that neither luck nor hard work seemed capable of solving. “It was terrible,” he says. For two decades Thibault (pronounced Tee-bow) had flourished as the […]

November 30, 2013

Success Stories

HDD contractor Scott Kelly’s “Journey to Elite” pays off in Contractor of the Year win

“This is not the business for us.” That’s what Scott Kelly remembers thinking in 1995, the first time he saw horizontal directional drilling in action during a demonstration in Shrewsbury, Massachsetts. Kelly’s father James began researching HDD a year before, so the two were very interested in seeing the relatively new technology in action. Suffice […]

May 1, 2013

Business

Loyalty a two-way street for successful Colorado contractor T-Bone Construction

With a company he built from the ground up starting in 1987, Michael Thibault’s T-Bone Construction in Colorado Springs was going full speed ahead when the recession hit. As a builder of commercial and industrial buildings, truck maintenance facilities, and car and truck dealerships, Thibault was hit with a double whammy. The big customers quit […]

April 1, 2013

Business

Husband and wife’s business savvy spell success for Texas contractor

By the time he graduated from high school, Ken Lester, president of Lester Contracting, Port Lavaca, Texas, could operate just about any piece of equipment in his dad’s construction fleet. He joined the company full time in 1979 and two years later his dad retired, leaving Ken to run the company. Ken saw the future […]

March 27, 2013

Business

Father and sons team up for growth and diversity at R.L. Caudill Construction

Stuart Caudill, owner of R.L. Caudill Construction,  Owingsville, Kentucky, and his brothers Robert and Shannon learned to operate equipment from their dad, Robert L., when they were barely old enough to reach the pedals. They also inherited a tenacious work ethic, the kind of daily get-it-done mentality that provoked one of their operators to say: […]

March 27, 2013

Business

Communication brings Massachusetts contractor through tough times

Richard Gordon has been operating equipment since he was a kid, running Bobcats around in the yard, the machine a capable extension of his curious and active mind. As he grew, he spent his summers working as a laborer and equipment operator before heading to Syracuse to pursue a degree in management. When it came […]

March 27, 2013

Business

NASCAR driver Jeff Burton talks Gen-6 cars, answers contractors’ questions

At Equipment World’s annual Contractor of the Year event this year, we were able to spend an hour of quality time with NASCAR driver Jeff Burton. The driver of the no. 31 Caterpillar car gave a short talk, answered questions and posed for photos with the 12 finalists and their wives Friday night in Las […]

March 18, 2013

Success Stories

Charles D. Lowder Inc. wins Equipment World’s top safety award

When a firm is well established, there can be an attitude of not fixing what isn’t broken while old ideas and ways of doing things hold firm. Which is why Gene Lowder, president of Charles D. Lowder Inc., celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, took a different approach with his safety program. The company’s efforts […]

March 14, 2013

Success Stories

Nitteberg Construction Co., small South Dakota town share a bond

Each February, Gale Nitteberg, his wife and their grandchildren pack up and head south for about month to escape the harsh South Dakota winter for the warm beaches of Florida. He says years ago he and his wife thought about leaving South Dakota and maybe moving somewhere warmer, but it was never something they were […]

March 1, 2013