Nixon-Egli Equipment Co. 50th Anniversary

RATING 50 Y CELEB 1965-2015 EARS

James Nixon, Chief Operating Officer (left); Vern Gunderson, Vice President of Construction Sales; Steve Nixon, President and Chief Executive Officer; Dana Randall, Vice President of Product Support and Carl Bahnsen, Vice President of Municipal Sales.

NIXON-EGLI EQUIPMENT CO. CELEBRATES GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY 50 Years and Three Generations of Unprecedented Service and Support

The Beginning years in business is quite a milestone for any company large or small. This is especially true when you contemplate the fact that over half of the nation’s businesses shut down their first year, and only five in one hundred make it to five years. Here today and gone tomorrow is quite often the epitaph of many a business, so what is the secret of longevity? For Nixon-Egli Equipment Co., the secret is that slow and steady almost always wins the race. It takes talent, vision, lots of hard work and a little bit of luck to remain viable in an industry as competitive as the heavy equipment business. It seems as though every mission statement you read these 2

days proclaims the company’s commitment to service through integrity and honesty, but living up to those standards is what separates the men from the boys. Nixon-Egli has proven their commitment to their customers time and time again over the past half century.

The company’s name comes from the two founders of Nixon-Egli, Jim Nixon and Paul Egli.

They both worked for American Hoist & Derrick back in the early 60s. Nixon traveled seven western states in sales for their H&B Asphalt subsidiary, while Egli served as a district representative for American Cranes, another subsidiary company. At the time, American Hoist & Derrick was a Fortune 500 company run by John Carrol. In 1965, Jim Nixon met with Carrol to see Nixon-Egli Equipment Company • 50th Anniversary

Paul R. Egli and James R. (Jim) Nixon, former partners and founders of Nixon-Egli Equipment Co.

if there was an opportunity to start a dealership in Northern California. Carrol offered Nixon the distributorship on the condition that he take Paul Egli as a partner to handle inside operations.

After meeting with Egli, Nixon jumped at the opportunity. Nixon-Egli Equipment Company, Inc. (Nixon-Egli) was born. Nixon owned 30 percent, Egli 30 percent and American Hoist & Derrick owned the remaining 40 percent. American Hoist & Derrick provided the partners with exclusive rights to sell their cranes, oil distributors, asphalt plants, rollers, trenchers, concrete batch plants, conveyors and sweepers. Nixon and Egli went right to work, starting out in an 8,000 square foot office in Emeryville. In 1970, the partners purchased a building and yard on Clawiter Road in Hayward. The first five years were difficult as the fledgling business established itself in Northern California, but eventually the business created a foothold as it moved from red into black.

Steve Nixon Jim Nixon’s son, Steve, started working for the company in 1965 at the original Emeryville office.

He began by working summers and eventually went full-time at the age of 20, but Uncle Sam changed his plans. Steve was drafted in 1967 and sent to Vietnam. Steve spent exactly 23 months and 28 days in the Army, with 363 days in the field, before being honorably discharged. Once Nixon-Egli Equipment Company • 50th Anniversary

out, he spent the better part of seven months exploring and bartending in Europe from the seat of a Norton motorcycle. He then returned home, beginning a new chapter in his life at San Francisco State studying history. Steve’s goal throughout high school and Vietnam had been to become a history professor; however he discovered that he lacked a teacher’s temperament. At this point, Steve entered the family business.

Steve Nixon’s earliest memory of the equipment business goes back to when he was five or six and living in Azusa. “My dad worked out in the San Fernando Valley for Cook Brothers and his main task each week was to sell a new Ford tractor, because if he could do that, he would have enough money to pay the mortgage,” says Steve Nixon. “One Saturday, my dad had to go out to the San Fernando office to meet a customer and brought me along. Dad put me up on a tractor and I had the best time of my life. That’s my first memory of the equipment business.” Steve paid his dues by working in and learning every aspect of the business. From parts and service to customer support and then on to sales and eventually management, Steve has done almost every job in the company as he moved through the ranks. In 1973, he took his first step into ownership when he bought Paul Egli’s shares of the Southern California branch of the company.

Expansion & A New Generation of Leadership & Change In 1971, Nixon-Egli expanded into Southern California. Their operations began out of the American factory store in Irwindale, where they remained for just over a year before moving to Clark Street in Santa Fe Springs. In the early 70s, the Blaw-Knox paver line took off rapidly.

Nixon-Egli sold Blaw-Knox to nearly every major paving company in California over the next few years.

Things were looking good for Nixon-Egli, but 1978 brought sadness and great loss when Jim Nixon died. Steve Nixon bought his father’s shares after his death. He then bought out American Hoist & Derrick’s shares, and agreed to part ways as their distributor. At that time, American represented 80 percent of Nixon-Egli’s business and Steve was forced to find a way to remain in business with just the Blaw-Knox paver and Athey sweeper lines. “Today, there is no golden goose or one product line that without [ Continued on page 6 ]

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Congratulations on 50 years of serving your customers

Above: Mike Burns, Wirtgen Group Specialist.

Above - Ontario Sales Department: Carl Bahnsen, Vice President of Municipal Sales (left); Gavin Singleton, Municipal Sales; Greg Schmidt, Municipal Sales; Chris Doring, Crushing & Screening Specialist; Dennis Schulgen, Crane Specialist; Kim Tyhurst, Sales Coordinator; Steve Kekich, Paving Specialist; Tom Trevithick, Crane Specialist; Cliff Blanc, Crane Specialist; Allen Hahn, Paving Specialist and Vern Gunderson, Vice President of Construction Sales.

Nixon-Egli Equipment Company has been serving our equipment needs for fifteen plus years and continues to strive to make sure that Anrak Corporation has what it needs to be successful. A large part of Anrak’s success is due, in part, to the fact that Nixon Egli’s team goes above and beyond in service, all hours of the day, to take care of any problems we may have. Anrak is a customer driven company that works day and night to support its customers’ needs with the help and support of Nixon-Egli. Randy Davis, their parts manager, is available 24/7 and always works hard to keep us up and running. Randy does everything in his power to make sure Anrak has the parts it needs in a timely fashion.

Everyone at Nixon-Egli is dedicated to keeping our business on the leading edge and that makes for a great partnership.

Service Manager, Sunil Bali, also has great knowledge and provides great support when our Wirtgen grinders have issues.

He provides quick and precise information to help us make the best decisions possible in regards to our equipment. Anrak can’t thank the guys at Nixon Egli enough for their great support and continued relationships in making Anrak successful.

Patrick Anderson – ANRAK Corporation which we could not survive,” says Steve. “When 80 percent of your business is taken away, you realize that you never want to be put in that position again, and that is why today there is no single manufacturer that accounts for more than 35 percent of our business. By limiting the percentage of our business that any single manufacturer provides, we preserve our ability to tell both our customers and the factories the unvarnished truth. Our job as a dealer is to be an honest broker of opinion to our customers and to the factory. If we are less than that, we simply are not doing our job. We will not sell an inferior product line or model, and we have had to part ways with a couple of manufacturers over the years because our customers deserve better. You are only as good as your people and the product lines you service and sell.”

Steve became the sole owner of Nixon-Egli in 1982, when he bought out Paul Egli’s ownership in Northern California. Nixon-Egli took on Bucyrus Erie when American Hoist & Derrick left and soon after added Galion cranes, motor graders and 6

pavers. They added American Crane back on when Bucyrus Erie exited the crane industry in 1984. The 1980s and 1990s would bring many other lines, some successful and some not. They added Wirtgen and LeeBoy in the mid 1980s – two lines that would grow to dominate the milling and commercial paving world. In 1989, Nixon-Egli added Link-Belt cranes to replace American.

Link-Belt cranes would grow to become one of Nixon-Egli’s flagship lines over the next 25 years.

Growth and Learning From Both Success and Failures In the 1980s, Nixon-Egli began to offer Link-Belt excavators and Kawasaki wheel loaders to the dirt and underground utility contractors. The move did not work out. It soon became obvious that while Nixon-Egli was thriving in the road building and heavy construction arena, they lacked the proper focus in the dirt industry. “We understand asphalt Nixon-Egli Equipment Company • 50th Anniversary

Above Left - Ontario Acounting Department: Melanie Albertson, Receptionist (left); Liz Samperio, Accounts Receivable; Patty Marks, Accounts Payable; Maricar Jocson, Office Manager; Aaron Willis, Chief Financial Officer and Gaby Scantee, Human Resources.

Above Right - Ontario Parts Department: Chris Hammack, Parts Counter Sales (left); Ian Ibrahimi, Shipping and Receiving; Julian Arroyo, Parts Manager; John Largent, Parts Counter Sales and Jonnie Larkin, Parts Coordinator.

Left: Nixon-Egli Equipment Co. Ontario Offices.

and we understand concrete and we get the guys that put it down. We understand cranes. We understand municipalities, with Carl Bahnsen at the helm of that division for more than 40 years,” says Steve. “I feel that we are the best in the business in these disciplines. But it became evident that to excel in the dirt business, you have to focus only on that dirt niche where volume is king. That’s not our core business.” Nixon-Egli refocused on its core industries as a result. Steve goes on to explain that they have made a few other mistakes over the years. “We couldn’t convince our sales reps to sell Gomaco, and lost the line because of that,” explains Steve. “We have had our share of failures and it is important that you learn from these risks gone wrong. As long as you figure out that you screwed up and can make it so it won’t happen again, you can move on to other battles.”

It is what Nixon-Egli has done right that contributed to their success. “One of our biggest challenges of being in business for 50 years would be the consolidation of the manufacturers.

It is imperative that we look out for Nixon-Egli and our customers first,” says Steve. In 1994, Steve took a year away from the company. He did Nixon-Egli Equipment Company • 50th Anniversary

this to see how the company survived without his daily presence, and to spend more time with his family. He discovered, quite happily, that his company continued to grow and prosper in his absence. “We have very loyal and talented employees that don’t make promises they cannot stand behind. In this industry, you have to sell your customers over and over again,” says Steve.

“You get one chance to do it right and that is our strength. We do it right the first time so that there will be a second, third, and fourth time.”

Employee Longevity with Industry Leading Training, Knowledge and Support Nixon-Egli Equipment Co. has been fortunate to have some of the best in the industry. Linda Inforzato, for instance, was the first employee hired in Southern California. Although she recently retired, she started out in 1971 as a receptionist and went on to become the company’s CFO. Carl Bahnsen joined the ranks in 1973 and is still

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Above - Ontario Service Department: Dave Heitmiller, Service Manager (left); Russell Buzoff, Service Administrator; Chris Berry, Mechanic; Isacc Arenas, Mechanic; Tony Jasso, Mechanic; Trevor Delaguerra, Mechanic; Gabriel Mendoza, Yard Man; Mike Heitmiller, Field Mechanic; Julio Santana, Service Parts Coordinator; Dave Woods, Mechanic; Luis Ramirez, Field Mechanic; John Novy, Shop Foreman and Dana Randall, Vice President of Product Support.

Over the past 10 years there have been countless occasions where Dave Heitmiller and Nixon-Egli’s service team have walked our operators through problems. Whether it was over the phone, or coming into our shop assisting our mechanics, or in the field helping us through challenges we could not take care of ourselves, they were always available to us. On new equipment there were several situations where problems were solved by the Nixon-Egli service department and not the factory. There is no doubt that the efforts and expertise of the Nixon-Egli staff have directly affected the number of Link-Belt cranes sold in California year after year.

Gregg Nichols –Bragg Crane adding to the bottom line, managing the municipal division. Ron Desjarden, Allen Hahn, and Chris Doring started out in the early 1980s and have excelled in sales for more than 30 years. John Skaff worked at Nixon-Egli for 30 years, rising from salesman to Vice President before retiring in 2014. Jack Rogers worked for Nixon-Egli on and off for more than 25 years growing sales both as a representative and in management. Dennis Johnson was hired in 1982 and he continues to set sales records in Northern California. Dana Randall has been the Vice President of Product Support for 15 years, and with the company for over 25 years repairing machines and satisfying customers.

Vern Gunderson worked for Nixon-Egli for several years, before leaving to work in management for a major paving company and then for one of the leading crane companies in California. He returned to Nixon-Egli last year to serve as VP of Construction Sales and has increased sales since.

Nixon-Egli’s culture of integrity and customer service has attracted and retained top talent 8

throughout the years, and that longevity is what allows them to build and retain the relationships that sustain the company.

Nixon-Egli divides their sales representatives on the basis of their specialized knowledge and customer base. They have crane specialists, milling and paving specialists, crushing & screening specialists, and a municipal division. One thing they have in common is that they are all continually attending schools and training events to keep them on the cutting edge of technology. This is also true for all of the fine mechanics that work for Nixon-Egli. “It’s the training that keeps them able to keep our customer’s machines up and running.”

Steve explains one of Nixon-Egli’s success stories over the years. “We have sold cranes to three generations of the Bragg family. My dad sold to Jim Bragg. I sold to George Bragg and my son, James, sold cranes to Scott Bragg. They still own and operate some of the American Cranes that we sold them years ago,” says Nixon. “This type of

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Nixon-Egli Equipment Company • 50th Anniversary

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Above: Nixon-Egli Equipment Co. Tracy California Sales, Parts, Service and Management.

loyalty does not come easy and can only be possible if you continually take care of your customer. They just want someone that will be there for them and stand behind the product after the sale. This is also true with our long list of asphalt paver customers. Asphalt gets

cold when a paver is down and if you are not there to fix it or replace the paver, it does not work out well for anyone. Much of our success and return customer base is entirely due to our service after the sale and we are quite proud of our track record.�

State-of-the-art Facilities in Northern and Southern California Today, Nixon-Egli operates out of two locations, one in Northern California in Tracy and the other in Southern California in Ontario.

They moved from Clawiter Road in Hayward to Tracy in 1998 when they outgrew the old facility. Their Tracy facility is centrally located, on more than 5 acres, with 2,500 sq. feet of administration space and 17,500 sq. ft. for parts and service. In 2007, Nixon-Egli sold their Santa Fe Springs facility and purchased a beautiful new facility in Ontario. This sprawling location features 6,000 sq. ft. of office space with more than 35,000 sq. ft. under roof for parts and service, on a total of 6 acres.

Industry Leading Product Lines For the past 50 years, Nixon-Egli Equipment Company has been working hard to supply their customers with the best cranes, municipal, and road construction equipment. They sell and service some of the best names in the industry, all backed by a multimillion-dollar parts 10

Nixon-Egli Equipment Company • 50th Anniversary

Above: Nixon-Egli Equipment Co. Tracy Offices.

Left - Tracy Management: Randy Davis, Parts Manager (left); Vern Gunderson, Vice President of Construction Sales and Sunil Bali, Service Manager.

inventory and factory-trained service personnel.

Names like Wirtgen, LeeBoy, Link-Belt, Vogele, Johnston, Kleemann, Hamm, Rosco, PB Loader, Aquatec/HiVac, Midland Machinery, Arrow-Master, Gradall, Sewer Equipment Co., Hi-Way, EAST, Ferguson, Zieman, American Road Machinery, Petersen Industries, HTC, Miller Spreader Co., and Trinity Trailers, with more coming in the near future.

Three of Nixon-Egli’s largest lines are Wirtgen, Link-Belt and LeeBoy. Wirtgen is a multibilliondollar company, and they are the largest manufacturer of asphalt pavers & milling machines in the world. They maintain a massive market share in Europe, with industry leading growth in the United States. Nixon-Egli represents four product lines for Wirtgen. First, there are the Wirtgen cold-milling machines, soil stabilizers, cold recyclers, binding agent spreaders, slipform pavers and surface mining machines. They also represent Vogele pavers and Hamm compactors, tandem rollers and static rollers. Lastly, they have Kleemann mobile jaw, cone, and impact crushers and mobile screens. They also sell and service the full-line of industry leading, self-propelled LeeBoy asphalt pavers. All one has to do is take a drive and you will see a LeeBoy paver on the majority of small to medium construction paving sites. It is clearly the line of choice in its class.

Link-Belt Construction Equipment Company is a leader in the design, manufacture and sales of telescopic and lattice boom cranes and Nixon-Egli is one of their top-selling dealers with world-class sales, parts and service. “We don’t ever want to become complacent where our customers’ needs are concerned. If we deliver a machine that is not satisfactory, we will do everything in our power to fix the situation,” says Steve Nixon. “We are very particular and are always looking for high quality construction equipment manufacturers Nixon-Egli Equipment Company • 50th Anniversary

to represent. We sell a high quality product at a reasonable price, and we take care of our customers. We are in this for the long run.”

James Nixon – The Next Generation Like his father, James Nixon also remembers his first exposure to the construction equipment industry. “I remember being at one of Nixon-Egli’s open houses when I was 5 or 6, and my father let me get into the cab of one of the big Link-Belt cranes,” says James. “I was just in awe of the machine. Going from playing with toys in my sandbox to sitting on the real thing for the very first time, it sticks in my mind to this day.” James worked for his father’s company part time from the seventh grade through college, because working for the family business was always his plan. Like his father before him, he started out assisting others in various departments such as parts, shipping, and even janitorial work. James graduated with a business degree from Whittier College and went full-time at Nixon-Egli within days of his graduation. His first full time job sent him to work for Carl Bahnsen in the municipal division. He worked in municipal sales covering the Central Valley and Central Coast of California, then in construction & municipal sales covering the San Diego Region. He learned a lot in these positions about building relationships, and satisfying the customer after the sale. After Jack Rogers retired in 2010, James earned the spot as sales manager where he reorganized the crane sales territories and grew both rentals and sales to a new level. Additionally, James changed how Wirtgen Group products were sold and supported by shifting Mike Burns from his position in service to a role as a specialist dedicated to their sale [ Continued on page 12 ]

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Above - Tracy Internal Sales: Debbie Rinetti, Sales Coordinator (left) and Keri Jensen, Receptionist.

Above - Tracy External Sales: Denny Johnson, Paving Specialist (left); David Cucinelli, Wirtgen Group Specialist; Bruce Brownie, Crane Specialist; Russell Dysard, Municipal Sales; Vern Gunderson, Vice President Construction Sales; Mike Knight, Municipal Sales and Jeremy Varner, Crushing & Screening Specialist.

“I love Nixon-Egli. It is all about service with them. When I call them and say ‘crane down,’ it means something. They react. If it’s the middle of the night, they are on their way. Their parts manager has bailed us out many times in the middle of the night. He has personally driven 100 miles at midnight to bring us a part... The folks at Nixon-Egli are key to this whole thing.”

Kelly Connolly - Connolly Crane and support, a move which has increased Wirtgen Group market share across the board. In 2013, Steve appointed James as the COO and turned over day to day operations to him, allowing Steve to concentrate on long term projects & strategic growth. “It is no longer about walking into a customer’s office and giving them a price and it probably never really was.

We focus on our customers’ actual needs, finding ways to solve their problems, and taking care of the customer after the sale,” says James. “It is all about building relationships and even friendships. We have never walked away from a machine and we never will.

I think that is just one of the things that sets us apart.”

financially support an annual golf tournament.

The proceeds go to pay for education and college for the children of special operations soldiers killed in combat, and provide help for their widows. They also donate to the Progeria Research Foundation, which is looking for a cure for progeria, a disease where a child ages prematurely. This is an extremely rare genetic disease that affects only one in approximately six million children, but due to that rarity, little research is done.

Giving Back

The Nixons truly care about the people they come in contact and interact with on a personal or business basis. “Doing what is right when no one is looking is in my opinion the true litmus test,” says Steve Nixon. “The character of any company is clearly measured by the actions of its leaders and employees.

Charity is extremely important to the Nixon family.

Steve and his family purposefully look for non mainstream charities with a focus on helping young children, where their donations can make a difference.

They heavily support the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, where they help to coordinate and 12

The Future

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Nixon-Egli Equipment Company • 50th Anniversary

Above - Tracy Service Department: (Top Row) Chris Gibbons, Field Mechanic (left); Richard Varner, Field Mechanic; Justin Wright, Mechanic; George Campbell, Shop Foreman and Jorge Briseno, Mechanic. (Bottom Row) Dan Besse, Mechanic (left) Sean Hart, Field Mechanic; Rudy Aguilar, Mechanic; Sunil Bali, Service Manager; Brenda Arias, Service Coordinator; and Mark Kelly, Field Mechanic.

Above - Tracy Parts Department: Robert Lingat, Parts Counter Sales (left); Lisette Bastian, Parts Coordinator; Michael Navalta, Parts Counter Sales; Axel Healy, Shipping and Receiving; Andy Madding, Parts Counter Sales and Randy Davis, Parts Manager.

I believe that always doing the right thing, not necessarily the profitable thing, is what has allowed us to remain in business for 50 years.”

According to Steve and James, they will remain a specialty dealer and continue to look for special niches with quality products to sell. Rentals in Nevada are growing steadily, and Nixon-Egli is looking there for future growth. They also continue to grow their equipment rental fleet. Nixon-Egli started out years ago with one or two rental cranes and now have over 40 cranes available to their rental and re-rent client base, as well as several crushers, screens, pavers, rollers, and milling machines.

In a world of startups and quick flips, it is refreshing to see a family business that has lasted 50 years and shows no signs of slowing. Nixon-Egli’s investment in employees, solid relationships and partnerships with customers and vendors has set them on a solid foundation poised for growth into the next half century. Here’s to Nixon-Egli Equipment Company on their Golden 50th Anniversary!

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Nixon-Egli Equipment Company • 50th Anniversary

Congratulations to Nixon-Egli Equipment Co. on it’s 50th anniversery. With two locations in California, Nixon-Egli can conveniently provide you with the newest Gradall excavator models, trained Gradall service technicians and factory-authorized Gradall parts to help you efficiently handle more work with fewer men and fewer machines.

Ask about our new Discovery Series models – our highly versatile telescoping, tilting boom excavators built on a Freightliner truck chassis, designed to easily handle typical government highway jobs on tight government budgets. All without the need and cost for a truck and lowboy trailer.

For details and a demo, contact one of the Nixon-Egli locations.

Nixon-Egli also has Gradall’s highway speed XL Series models for even greater power and longer boom reach as well as automatic transmissions. Plus, Nixon-Egli has highly productive Gradall on/off pavement wheeled excavators that can handle any kind of work in any direction without the need for outriggers.

GET IT AT WWW.NIXON-EGLI.COM ONTARIO, CA 909-930-1822

TRACY, CA 209-830-8600

(330) 339-2211 • www.Gradall.com