and were willing to do whatever it took to help us get our dreams off the ground. We left all of the luxuries and non-essentials behind and focused solely on starting our company.” And so Brewer Crane began with Ro typing up quotes and answering phones from the kitchen table of her childhood home, and Brent out drumming up sales and running cranes. The duo had a unique mix of skills and experience – one which turned out to be a recipe for success. Brent Brewer got his start in the crane business working for over 15 years with his father, Clell Brewer, who owned Cabrillo Crane and Cabrillo Hoist in San Diego before the companies were sold to Anthony Crane in 1994. “I have great respect for my father and all that he accomplished in the crane and rigging business. He taught me most of what I know and use in my everyday business.” Rolynda’s resume consisted mainly of construction bookkeeping and office management for varied companies and industries – everything from coffee shop bookstores to retail to residential construction. Ro highlights that “after years of working with Nordstrom and doing things the ‘Nordstrom way’, I wanted to bring those same principles of going above and beyond in terms of customer service to the crane industry.” They each leveraged their respective skills to help get Brewer Crane off the ground. But success didn’t come quickly. Work trickled in at first. Brent and Ro teamed up with two partners to increase the company’s chance of success. Finally, Brewer Crane & Rigging (Brewer Crane) got one of its first big breaks when Rudolph and Sletten called and needed cranes to help construct the Amgen facility in Thousand Oaks. Even though the job was far from the company’s home base, it required two cranes and lasted for five months. It was consistent revenue and it helped
www.calcontractor.com www.calcontractor.com
build Brewer Crane’s resume in those early days. The company even got a dose of celebrity in that first year. Brent remembers, “I received a call from a contractor needing a crane for use on the Spielberg film, Amistad,” says Brent. “We thought outside the box and partnered with a friend of mine from Arizona who provided us with a 30-ton crane for the movie project.” The crane was loaded onto a barge and the seafaring movie took sail. This project lasted for two months with Brent running the crane 18 hours a day, seven days a week. With these first two jobs under the company’s “belt,” Brent and Rolynda were able to break away from their additional partners and settle into the company – just the two of them. “We bought our
first crane, which was a used 1976 75-ton P&H from Colton Equipment out of La Mirada, California,” remembers Brent. “We began using the P&H to work up in the mountains on communication sites. This kept us busy, along with the occasional tree, HVAC, and other typical lifting jobs,” says Brent. “We took anything we
could get our hands on and were eventually able to purchase a gently used 1997 Grove TTS870 hydraulic truck crane and then another one a few months later. It was in 1999 when we finally purchased our first brand new crane, a Terex T340 hydraulic truck crane. That was a big day for us.”
Above & Inset: Brewer Crane & Rigging’s new Link-Belt 238 HSL 150-ton lattice crawler crane on the mall expansion in La Jolla.
2016 2016crane crane&&high highreach reachISSUE ISSUE CALCONTRACTOR CALCONTRACTOR
13