TRIPLE L EXCAVATING | Uncovering a Thriving Business

When you dig long enough you usually uncover things. In the case of the Letkeman family, what they uncovered was a thriving business –

Winkler-based Triple L Excavating.

The story goes that founder and family patriarch John C. Letkeman got tired of the grind hauling asphalt and gravel taking him away from the family. Eventually he had enough and got down to business – literally – stepping into the role of an entrepreneur.

“He was told he was needed to work on Sunday one weekend,” said his son Bob. “He said he wasn’t doing that, so they fired him. They called him to come back to work on the following Monday and he said ‘it’s too late, I bought a backhoe’. That was about 1978.”

At the time Bob and his younger brother Rick, now partners in Triple L, had no plans to be in the excavation business. Bob spent the first seven years after school working in agriculture for local farmers.

It wasn’t until 1986, after their father had a massive heart attack, that they bought into the business and christened Triple L Excavating, after the three Letkemans. Up until that point their father had been taking small jobs locally fulfilling his desire to stay close to the family.

The Letkemans spent the next several years developing the business alongside their father excavating basements, preparing housing and industrial developments and eventually growing the business to do asphalt road work but in the early days the jobs were smaller.

“We just did basements, sewer and water,” said Rick who noted that the types of jobs and the business grew as the region grew.

Things ticked along at a reasonable pace until 1998 when John Letkeman passed away at the young age of 60 leaving his family to carry on the business legacy that he had started 20 years earlier.

“Dad left us a good name,” said Bob. “He was well known and respected by a lot of people. He would be in the coffee shop and someone would say ‘come do this for me next week’ or they would phone the house and he would just get things done.” John Letkeman’s solid reputation combined with the rapid growth of the region and southern Manitoba (one of the fastest growing in Canada for the past 20 years) helped to accelerate the business of Triple L and ensure a steady stream of revenue and work.

“Dad built the reputation that we now try to uphold. We try our best to do good and professional work to keep our customers happy” said Bob. The longevity doesn’t hurt either - it’s been 44 years since John Letkeman decided to run his own business and things don’t show any sign of slowing down.

Running an excavating business in 2022 is very different than in 1986. The pace of development has translated to higher expectations and shorter deadlines. There’s more competition and more of an instant gratification mindset when it comes to home building.

“There’s a lot of pressure to get stuff done these days,” said Bob. “The way they put up a building now is very different. When the road is done the shingles are already there for the house and everything just keeps moving.”

We want to have a good reputation and if there’s issues they know we’ll work through them.

has changed over the past several decades. A business unable to keep up with the change will not survive. The market is very different today compared to 30 years ago.

“Back then a subdivision would go in and the lots would sell a year or two later,” said Bob. “Now you have to hurry up because some of the lots are already pre-sold. It’s a faster pace now compared to then. You didn’t have cell phones, you waited until lunch for people to get a hold of you and make a decision.”

These days, Bob spends most of his time in the office while Rick continues to operate equipment and work in the field on various job sites along with other staff. Their sister Karen also helps with the accounting and books and Bob’s son Jason has been developing an interest spanning the business across three generations.

“He’s 19 years old and likes to do a little bit of everything,” said Bob. “He helps mostly on the paving crew and can operate a loader and an excavator.”

Working with family always brings unique challenges as any familyoperated business person will tell you. There’s family gatherings and other regular get-togethers where the temptation to blend work and pleasure can be high but the Letkemans have found a way to make it work.

“It works for us to separate the jobs,” said Bob. “I stay in the office and Rick goes out into the field and takes care of things there.”

While business can definitely change the family dynamic another thing that has changed in the decades since Triple L began the excavating business is the equipment. On the outside, the average backhoe or pay loader may look very much like they did 30 years ago, but don’t let looks deceive you. Rick who noted that otherwise the machines were essentially unchanged.

One of the new pieces of technology is the addition of Global Positioning Systems or GPS in backhoes.

According to Construction Equipment magazine “GPS-based grade control on excavators provides the exact position and orientation of the bucket to achieve grade faster without stakes.”

GPS can assist the operator in accurate 3D positioning of the bucket in relation to coordinates provided by an engineer for large scale projects like subdivision development preparation. It can also be applied to grading, trenching and dredging.

According to Construction Equipment “GPS systems for excavators give operators the site plans at their fingertips,” states Arthur Taylor, Trimble segment manager for machine control. “The system displays for operators where they are on the site, what the desired depth is, and how far from target depth they are — which greatly improves speed to desired depth and prevents over excavation.”

It’s a faster pace now compared to then. You didn’t have cell phones, you waited until lunch for people to get a hold of you...

GPS excavator systems have in-cab operator displays that are designed to be intuitive and simple to use, maximizing operator productivity and allowing even those who claim to be ‘technology challenged’ to be more productive and proficient in a short period of time.

Of course additional benefits include security because the addition of an onboard GPS can allow for the tracking of stolen equipment and even allow you to setup geofencing that designates a zone the equipment is expected to stay within.

With technology like GPS contributing to things like speed and accuracy, a business like Triple L can spend more time taking on more jobs and not just in the Pembina Valley either. Triple L has expanded to take on jobs throughout southern Manitoba.

“We’ll go anywhere we’re needed,” said Rick who noted they have completed jobs all over the province including near Brandon, and in Niverville which has seen enormous growth over the past 5 years.

For the past six years, Triple L has expanded from the traditional excavation business and has been doing road work and related contracts as well.

“We had an opportunity to purchase the equipment from another business and take on ashphalt patching,” said Bob. “We thought it was something we could use. If there is a road that needs paving we can do that or even small patches, driveways and sections.”

Triple L had noticed that a lot of the roads contracts were going to out-oftown companies because there just wasn’t a lot of local capability. By expanding the business to take on paving and patching Triple L has kept the service local.

Through all of the growth and expansion Bob and Rick continue to appreciate the lessons their father taught them along the way and credit him for a lot of Triple L’s success and longevity.

“He taught me about patience,” said Bob. “I remember digging for something at this guy’s house once and we couldn’t find this certain hose and it was getting late and he said ‘we’re better off to shovel here by hand than if I hit it with the backhoe because then we’ll be here all night’.” Rick recalls learning how to use the backhoe from his father John.

“A lot of it was just sitting back and watching him,” said Rick. “That’s where I learned most of my stuff from. He always liked it when we were around.”

The kind of patient teaching that informed the early days of Triple L and shaped Bob and Rick’s careers continues to have an impact on the business as they look to the future and consider the next generation.

“I know Jason would like to continue to have a lot to do with the business nd hopefully it can be something he will carry on” said Bob who still sees himself involved for a long time to come yet. “I haven’t had a plan to stop at 65 and retire.”

Today, Triple L is definitely a different business than it was when it started back in 1986. Back then they had built up from the original backhoe bought in 1978 to two backhoes and a tandem truck. They were still operating on the family farmyard out of a small 1,800 square foot shop which was made by purchasing and moving part of the old Valley Bakery building from Winkler to their property in Reinfeld.

“Now, the little 1,800 square foot building seems like a little backyard shop compared to the 6,000 square foot space they own in Winkler. Even that space has constraints as they rent additional storage space for some equipment.

“Our thing is not having a big shop,” said Bob chuckling. “If the guys are all in the shop working, we’re not making any money. Although, having a little bit more space would be nice.”

Today Triple L operates five excavators, five pay loaders, one backhoe, three skid steers, 10 trucks, a paver, two packers and a grader – a long way from the early days and a testimony to the hard work and ability of the family.

While they made it through the past two years of Covid with minimal impact on their business and with a better than average year shaping up, the future’s only constraints is securing and keeping trained staff.

“The biggest headache there is, is finding employees,” said Rick who noted that the seasonal nature of the business where staff may not be working in the winter makes it challenging to sustain a good, welltrained workforce. “We have good year round staff now and usually find additonal staff when things get busier, but it is challenging around this area since there is so much opportunity out there,” explains Bob.

The journey from a business that started so that a man could spend more time with his family to an operation more than 40 years later that still provides for that family and a new generation is one they think would impress John.

“Dad would be in awe,” said Bob. “He would be proud of us. At the time he was just trying to make a little money. He wanted to do better. That he would take the time to teach us as we grew up and leave us such a good name has helped get us where we are today.” Triple L Excavating has a story that embodies what can happen when one person takes a risk and steps out on their own. From the early days of a young father just trying to spend more time with his family to a the organization that exists now more than four decades later the business that John C. Letkeman started continues to thrive and serve the Pembina Valley and southern Manitoba under his son’s Bob and Rick.

Dad would be in awe... he would be proud of us.