When it comes to running a family business, there’s no such thing as a 9 to 5 day. "We’re White Oak 24-hours a day," said Tom Ficklin, president of the Fredericksburg, VA-based heavy equipment dealer. In each minute of every hour, Tom and the rest of the staff of the 35-year-old company strive to exude an image of integrity, trust and reliability.

The company’s morals come from its founder, Frank McCarty, who began to transfer control...

Tracey Road Equipment, Inc. (TRE) is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

The company was established in 1976 and really got its start when Jerry Tracey began in the industry working for a company called J.C. George. "After serving in the Air Force in Vietnam and before starting TRE, I was a salesman for the J.C. George Equipment Company, a long-established equipment distributor," said Jerry Tracey...

Ask Rolf Helland, president of Illinois Truck & Equipment, why the company has steadily grown over the last 25 years and he will credit several factors, including the company's good reputation, its large and diverse inventory, superior service, quality manufacturers, a convenient location and great employees.

No one will dispute...

"We started the business in 1964 with a $5,000 loan. How times have changed," Mary Ann Allen, AEC secretary/treasurer and co-founder.

But Mary Ann wasn’t 100 percent certain of what they were getting into. At the time, Dewayne, her husband, was working in Illinois for a highway contractor.

"We lived in Illinois, and this was started in Piggott, Arkansas, Dewayne’s hometown. I was...

Phil McCoy, president of RoadBuilders Machinery & Supply Co., credits great employees and excellent products for the company’s uninterrupted record of success over the first 30 years of its existence — but Bob Fischer believes there is more to it than that. He also credits hard work… and Phil McCoy.

"I was impressed with him from the start," said Fischer of his boss and colleague. Fischer is RoadBuilders’s most senior salesman...

Six days a week, a steady stream of customers make their way to the busy parts counter inside 20-year-old Baschmann Services’ airy new store and service facility in Elma, N.Y.

Service is everything to owner Peter Baschmann, who spends most of his time away from headquarters. He and his entire sales team enjoy being out on the road seeing customers in action...

In 1986, Peter Baschmann started a new venture, Baschmann Services, Inc.

Peter began his career as a self-employed technician working from his truck and shop in Varysburg, N.Y. He specialized in the repair of heavy equipment, undercarriage and tracked equipment. In time, Peter had grown the business from a one-man operation to employing two other technicians; eventually...

Hayden–Murphy Equipment Company was founded in 1957 by Hank Hayden and Chuck Murphy. The original location was at 4501 Hiawatha Ave. Minneapolis, in an old fire barn (there was still hay in the loft that was used to feed horses for the horse-drawn fire rigs of the day). At the time, the product lines ranged from water coolers to cranes, and just about everything in between. Then, in 1966, they relocated to their current location...

When Dan Whitney joined his father’s business in 1972, he didn’t just add the “son” to “Whitney and Son,” he added the vision needed to move the company into the aggregate market.

At that time, WhitneyAssociates, the company founded by Dan’s father Nason in 1964, focused on providing...

Buck & Knobby Equipment Co. Inc. is not a pretentious company — its name being a combination of childhood nicknames, Buck and Knobby. It thrives in the 21st century on the strength of allegiance to its customers, a "mom and pop" dealer in a world of consolidated mega-dealers, and is a 70-year success story.

Buck & Knobby Equipment Company of Ottawa Lake, Mich., was founded in 1948 by...

The equipment dealership founded in 1962 by James “Jumbo” Elliott and Harry Frantz was predicated on a philosophy of customer service. Fifty years later, many things about the equipment and the construction industry have changed, but a couple things haven’t: Elliott & Frantz Inc. continues to provide quality products and exemplary service.

"It has always been about the customers...

In the 1700s, long before there was a Ransome CAT, long before there was a Giles and Ransome, a family in Ipswich, England was heavily involved in the iron business.

Born in 1753, Robert Ransome was apprenticed to an ironmonger after leaving school. He took out a patent for cast-iron roofing plates in 1783; in 1785 he took out his first patent for tempering cast-iron ploughshares...

Fort Dodge, Iowa, dates back 150 years to when the U.S. Army built a short-lived military base on the site to help regulate relations between Indians and settlers. By comparison, Mid Country Machinery goes back just 15 years, yet from its Fort Dodge headquarters, company executives today oversee heavy equipment transactions around the globe.

Mid Country is a modern success story...

Chappell Tractor Sales Inc. celebrated its golden anniversary five years ago. The company, however, was founded by a pearl — Perley Chappell and his son, George.

Perley lived long enough to see the third generation own and operate what has become Chappell Tractor, which celebrated 55 successful years in business in 2010. Now the forth generation owns and operates the business...

A company’s progress across 95 years can be measured in many ways. Business volume. Product lines. Market area. At Scharber & Sons Inc., these and other indices of growth are viewed as evidence of good decisions made in the past as well as harbingers of good things to come.

Obviously, the Scharber heritage extends beyond the 1950s. The period between then and now may...

In the beautiful Bluegrass Country of central Kentucky, Wilson Equipment Company is almost as old as the Kentucky Derby and as customer-friendly as a mint julep.

Headquartered in Lexington, “the Horse Capital of the World,” Wilson Equipment Company is observing its 125th anniversary this year, only 15 years behind the Derby’s 140 years. While it’s not as world famous as the horse race...

For the Lano family, and their 60 plus employees, maintaining the legacy of their business after 70 years of service to the twin Cities metro area is a primary objective.

That legacy, that small business work ethic, where every customer, and every employee matters, is what has made Lano Equipment a top equipment dealer in the Midwest.

First established in 1946...

With established businesses, it is sometimes tempting to become satisfied with a certain level of success. These companies conduct business much as they always had, not adapting to new technologies or change. Tracey Road Equipment is not one of those companies, however — it is by recasting and with an eagerness to invite change that Jerry Tracey credits his success. Tracey Road Equipment is celebrating 35 years of business, enjoyed throughout many economic cycles — both robust and poor...

How does a company stay in business through recessions, depressions, economic turbulence, changes in regulations and fulfilling loyal customer needs for 80 years?

An eight-decade company — one that was originally founded when the stock market crashed, one whose first decade of work was during the Great Depression, one that has endured the challenges of the cutbacks of the 1970s, and the downturns...

Celebrating 70 years of success as a family-owned company and a premiere dealer of John Deere construction and industrial equipment, Erb Equipment Company pays due respect to its past. On a rock-solid foundation of excellent customer service and non-negotiable family values, Erb Equipment has ambitious plans to grow the business for many generations to come.

Unwavering focus on both employee and...

Road Machinery & Supplies Co. (RMS), a third-generation construction equipment distributor, is proudly celebrating its 85th anniversary this year.

Headquartered in Savage, Minn., just south of the Twin Cities, RMS supports numerous construction and industrial customers throughout the state. Special areas...

A married couple celebrating 60 years together might exchange gifts … a diamond is traditional.

But for Pine Bush Equipment’s 60th anniversary, the company is throwing itself a party — or two parties, to be precise: June 11 in Pine Bush, N.Y., and June 18 in Newington, Conn....

Harlan Palm is the man behind the success of Towmaster Trailers. He didn’t single-handedly turn the Litchfield, Minn., manufacturing company into a major player in the United States trailer industry, but you can’t talk about Towmaster without talking about Palm.

Palm saw the market niche and created a product to fill it. He groomed the market...

Fifty years and three generations ago, West Side Tractor Sales Co. dedicated itself to the proposition that John Deere customers shouldn’t have to travel to the south side of Chicago for sales and service.

Turns out, Rich and Mary Benck had a viable idea. The dealership not only has endured, it has grown far beyond perimeter towns of Chicago...