McCann Industries marks 50 years as heavy equipment dealer
This year McCann Industries is celebrating 50 years as a heavy equipment dealer and contractor supplies source serving Illinois and Indiana.
The Addison, Illinois, company was founded as McCann Construction Specialties in 1967 by Richard McCann in Villa Park, Illinois. Richard’s Son, Jim, is the current president and CEO and the company now has seven locations across the two states and carries equipment from Case, Takeuchi, Wacker Neuson, Allen Engineering, Sullair, Husqvarna and Carlson Paving Products.
“I’m humbled by the success our business has realized through the years,” says Jim McCann. “I understand it’s only been possible because we employ people that thrive in a culture that’s focused on exceeding our customer’s expectations every day.”
How dealer social media efforts lead to sales, increased customer engagement
When a California dealership started a new social media initiative, it had one primary objective: increase sales. From the beginning of the campaign its social media presence was dismal: it had less than 200 likes on Facebook, it was posting irregularly and there was no engagement on its page.
Eight months later, after working out a social media strategy which included paid Facebook advertising, the dealer had more than 10,000 likes, and site analytics showed a significant increase in engagement. But more important, its goal for new business had been realized: the dealership had sold 10 additional machines. The dealer traced it back to the higher call volumes for the units on sale – both new and used – after he advertised them on Facebook.
“Selling equipment from social media is not just talk,” says John Ryneska, national sales manager, Commercial Web Services. “You can apply it and get tangible results.”
Home starts drop in January as multi-family units settle from surge
The start of construction on new homes in the U.S. fell during January due to a drop in multi-family units.
Total home starts fell 2.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.246 million but remain up 10.5 percent over the January 2016 rate, according to preliminary data from the Commerce Department. This latest data release also revised the estimate for December to 1.279 million. The revision does not impact December’s previously reported monthly increase in home starts of 11.3 percent.
Single-family units rose 1.9 percent during January to a rate of 823,000 and are now up 6.2 percent year over year. Multi-family units fell 7.9 percent to a rate of 421,000 but remain up 25.7 percent year over year. This month’s dip in multi-family starts follows a December that brought a huge surge from that sector of 54 percent.
Adapt or Die: Future of construction will require contractors to embrace technology
Kiewit is known as one of the country’s top construction firms. What is less well known is that they’ve diversified into software development.
InEight is the company’s wholly owned subsidiary and offers HD Suite a group of software programs covering the gamut of back office and field solutions for all sizes of companies in the building, infrastructure, mining, oil and gas, and utility industries. (For more on this, see subhead “By contractors for contractors” on page 82).
So why would a $9-billion, global construction company diversify from dirt and diesel into digits?
Bieller named Dynapac Road Construction president, general manager for N.A.
Dynapac Road Construction has named Brian Bieller as president and regional general manager for North America as part of its new company structure. Bieller will oversee all road construction equipment operations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Central America and Caribbean.
Atlas Copco recently announced its intent to divest the Dynapac group, an announcement followed shortly after by news that Fayat would purchase it.
Bieller most recently served as vice president and business line manager for Road Construction Equipment.
