As one of the largest contractors in the Denver, Colorado area,
Premier Earthworks and Infrastructure (PEI) has worked with
many brands of construction equipment and various dealers over
the years. “Our fleet is over 400 pieces of equipment currently,
with a variety of brands represented,” said Cody Salyards,
President of PEI. “We’re constantly adding and upgrading our
fleet to maximize the performance and productivity for the wide
variety of projects we work on.”
PEI moved to the Denver metro area in 2013 and grew from a
modest base of business of $5 million/year in the first year to
over $100 million in sales the latest year. According to Salyards,
the company has the equipment and the expertise to take on
a wide variety of projects but specializes in mass grading/site
prep, road work, concrete, and utilities. “The company has grown
exponentially over the last 6 or 7 years. Now we have the ability
to take on large $30 million+ projects while still retaining the
attention to detail and down-to-earth attitude needed for doing
small projects as well.”
One of the main keys to the success of PEI has been their
philosophy of providing a turnkey approach to bidding and
completing projects. “One of the things our customers value the
most is that we offer a one-stop operation for the owners of the
projects that we work on,” explained Salyards. “PEI supplies the
crews starting with site preparation including rough grade and our
crews are onsite all the way through to installing utilities, pouring
concrete and completing final grade. We give our customers a
single point of contact for the project, and that, combined with
the quality of the work that we do, has provided the catalyst for
the tremendous growth that we’ve experienced over the last half-dozen
years.”
Commitment to excellence is one of the reasons that caused PEI to explore
sourcing equipment from Titan Machinery several years ago.
“Equipment uptime for some of our crews was a real problem with
a different construction equipment supplier,” said Salyards. “After
meeting several times with representatives from Titan Machinery,
we decided to give them a shot to see if they could provide the
level of performance we were looking for. We replaced some of
the wheel loaders and excavators being used on our site prep
crews and were immediately satisfied with the performance of the
equipment and Titan’s service department.”
Damian Rice, Area Sales Manager for Titan Machinery recalls
the first few pieces of equipment that were delivered to PEI in
2016. “The first machines we delivered to PEI were Case 621F
wheel loaders. Cody was very clear on the expectations that
the equipment performed and that Titan Machinery’s service
department was up to the task of keeping the equipment
operating. This would be a test, and if we passed, we could expect
more business from PEI in the future. If not, the door would close
for us. I was confident that the Case loaders and our service team
would impress PEI’s operators and job superintendents. Things
worked out well and PEI began to source more of their equipment
from us.”
Three years later and the fleet of Case Construction equipment
owned and operated by PEI has grown to include a number
of excavators, skid steers, landscape loaders and even more
wheel loaders. PEI has also started utilizing Case IH tractors to
perform site prep work on projects requiring heavy disking. The
performance of the equipment and the level of service provided
by Titan Machinery have proven to be more than satisfactory and
exceeded earlier expectations.
“I would say that the biggest hurdle we had in the transition
is convincing some of the operators to give the equipment a
chance,” explained Salyards. “For most of our teams, it’s the first
opportunity they had to run Case Construction equipment for any
length of time. There were questions on how the equipment would
perform and whether Titan would deliver the level of service we
needed to be at our best for our customers.”
“The first thing we noticed was the level of service that Titan
provided,” Salyards continued. “When a machine went down for
any reason Titan was out to get it running right away. We had never
seen that level of responsiveness from a dealer before. It became
obvious early on in the relationship with Titan Machinery that
they had a very professional service team that were completely
committed to keeping the equipment running with minimum
disruptions to our work. We believed we could trust them and count
on them to keep our equipment in the field and that’s been a real
asset to us as we continue to grow the business.”
“The equipment itself performed as good or better than the
machines they took the place of in our fleet. The equipment is
designed well and built for the job site. Which didn’t really surprise
us – we’ve found that to be true for most construction equipment
brands on the market today. Just about every manufacturer makes
a capable product. The real differentiator is in the support that’s
provided by the dealer. In the case of Titan Machinery, I would
characterize that support as world-class.”
Both Titan Machinery and PEI take the same approach to customer
service. “PEI stresses the importance of being a 1-stop solution
provider for their customers, and that’s the same way we approach
our relationship to PEI,” explained Rice. “Our job is to make it
easy to business with Titan Machinery. We take worrying about
equipment out of the equation for PEI and allow them to do
concentrate on completing the project they are working on.”
“Companies usually say that their employees are their most
important asset,” said Salyards. “We know that to be true at PEI.
We’ve got a great core of employees that have the knowledge
and the commitment to doing great work that is at the heart of what we do as a company. We also believe that the equipment in our fleet plays a vital role in our ability to provide exceptional value to the customers that trust us to complete their projects.
Great employees that are hindered by equipment that under-performs
cannot deliver the high level of service that we hold ourselves to.”
According to Salyards another unique aspect of PEI’s business plan
is owning and controlling the companies that supply key materials
for the job sites that they work on. “We have two sister-companies
that we fully-own. The first, Overlook Mines, provides aggregates
and fill materials used on a variety of sitework and road projects.
The second, Inland Redi Mix, supplies concrete and cement for
roads, flatwork, and curb-and-gutter projects. We believe that
owning these key suppliers enhances our ability to provide our
customers a superior finished project.”
Salyards looks forward to continued growth of PEI in the years
to come and a continued partnership with Titan Machinery for
key portions of PEI’s fleet. “We’ve had the fortune to have grown
tremendously over the past 5-6 years. Hard work, great employees,
and strategic partnerships have all played a role in that success.
Titan Machinery has been one of the partners that we’ve counted on
as we’ve grown the business. We expect Titan Machinery to play a
big role in our future as we look forward to continuing to grow our
business in Colorado.”