Jordan Mellich, fleet coordinator and 23-year veteran of Birch Equipment, has watched Rothenbuhler totally turn the business around. Birch is now one of the top 100 rental companies in the country and offers more than 145,000 products for rent and sale. (Photo by Sherri Huleatt)
her friend’s coffee startup, and did public relations for the Seahawks. Then came 1995. She saw Birch Equipment start to go under, and she knew where her place was. As a minority owner and the only family member to have actively worked at Birch Equipment, she felt a responsibility to pull the once-successful business out of the gutter. At the time, Rothenbuhler said, the company was in the midst of its “Bermuda Triangle.” A national company—Hertz—had negotiated with Birch’s owners to buy out the company; Hertz already had collected equipment, along with customer and staff data. But in the 11th hour Hertz
“I wasn’t starting a company, I was digging it out of a hole, and the first few years felt like building on quicksand.” —Sarah Rothenbuhler, Birch Equipment CEO and owner
backed out of the deal and instead set up a competing shop near Birch’s
Mount Vernon location. At the same time, the management team who’d been running day-to-day operations at Birch for the previous 15 years decided to leave and open yet another competitive equipment rental company in Bellingham. Likewise, the ownership representatives also split ways with Birch and opened one in Ketchikan, Alaska. The national takeover and employee exodus could have been the final straw for Birch Equipment. Sarah Rothenbuhler had other plans. “The first three-to-five years were just brutal,” Rothenbuhler said. “The company had been really wrung out by people and assets. There were no sustainable systems, leadership, management, or healthy equipment. Birch was imploding. I wasn’t starting a company, I was digging it out of a hole, and the first few years felt like building on quicksand.” To help stabilize the company and get bank financing, Rothenbuhler kicked off a buy-sell option and bought out all of the stockholders. “I paid top-of-market dollars, as some of the management and stockholders would have been fine seeing Birch fail and liquidate, which would have resulted in a loss of all the jobs, sys-
tems, and services we were in the process of building,” Rothenbuhler said.
“When markets slow, the first thing national companies do is lay their people off and start dumping equipment. Birch has always done the opposite.” —Jordan Mellich, fleet coordinator
According to Jordan Mellich, fleet coordinator and 23-year veteran of the company, Rothenbuhler’s smart strategies were the company’s saving grace. “About six months after I started, Sarah came on board and completely cleaned house – management, (upgraded) equipment quality, and made processes the focus,” Mellich said. “When markets slow, the first thing national companies do is lay off their people and start dumping equipment. Birch has always done the opposite. We invest in our people heavily with training and have never done a layoff. When everyone stops WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 29