people. Workers who grew up on a farm have a good work ethic and mechanical aptitude. They don’t expect everything to be handed to them. They expect to work from sunrise to sunset.”
Key staff members include CFO Mike Sand who handles most of the administrative decisions; utilities superintendent Curt Kinney, earthmoving superintendent Pat Popp; and paving superintendent Joe Prusak.
Productive equipment needed
In addition to the qualified staff, Northwest Asphalt also relies on a large fleet of heavy construction and paving equipment. To fill its equipment needs, the company often turns to Road Machinery & Supplies Co. and territory manager Gordon Johnson.
Northwest Asphalt purchased its first Komatsu in 1990, a PC200-5 hydraulic excavator. “That machine ran a long time and it was absolutely trouble-free,” Pfeiffer recalled. “As we added more Komatsu excavators to the fleet, we hardly ever had to fix them.”
As the size and number of Northwest Asphalt projects have grown, so have the size of excavators they’ve acquired. “I remember with the first PC300 we bought, I said, ‘That’s a big hoe, we’ll never have anything bigger than that.’ Then we started laying pipe and we got some PC400s and now we’ve got a PC750.”
The operator of a
Komatsu PC400LC-6
excavator helps crews
install utilities as part of
Northwest Asphalt’s
project at the Arboretum
Shopping Center in
Chanhassen, Minn.
The company’s Komatsu excavator fleet includes a PC200LC-6, a PC250LC-6, a PC300LC-7, a PC300LC-6, two PC400LC-6s, a PC750LC-6 and a new PC400LC-7. Pfeiffer says the range of sizes is necessary for the wide variety of jobs the company takes on. “The smaller machines, such as the 200 and 250 are for commercial sites, doing footings and the like. The 400s are for both dirt work and utilities,” he noted. With a 13-foot arm and a four-and-one-half-yard bucket, the PC400LC-7 can handle anything either the earthmoving or pipe crews give it.
“We really like the longevity and low maintenance costs we get with Komatsu,” Pfeiffer stated. “They’re less expensive overall than competitive machines and we get good service from RMS.” Pfeiffer pointed out that operators say the Komatsus swing faster and have faster hydraulics than other brands.
Pfeiffer also commented that parts availability and service are important factors. “I think we get good attention from RMS,” he affirmed.
More to come
With a strong history, experienced crew and dependable equipment, Mike Pfeiffer predicts more growth for Northwest Asphalt.
“Having the three divisions makes us more diversified and builds our presence in the Twin Cities. Our strategy has been to diversify and not go after the really big jobs where we’ve got all our eggs in one basket. We spread out our projects so even if one sector takes a hit, it’s not going to destroy us.
“One of the things my dad taught me was never to assume that business will stay good. There are going to be good times and bad times. So, you have to be careful about how deep in debt you get and how ambitious you are.
“We don’t want to bid more than we can handle,” Pfeiffer continued. “We have a reputation to maintain. The reason customers call us is because we can get the job done on time. About 90 percent of our business is from repeat customers. But I think with our diversity, we’ll be able to continuing doing those big jobs with short time frames and we’ll be able to weather any storms in the future.”