CUSTOMER| A SALUTE TO AN CUSTOMER |
RJK CONTRACTING
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Diversification is the key to RJK Contracting’s success, according to owner Roger Kjellberg, who says his customers tell him they like working with RJK “because they can come to us for everything they need.” RJK Contracting, based in Fridley, Minnesota, offers “excavating, demolition, interior demolition, sewer and water work, and landscaping,” Kjellberg stated. “And we’re just getting into paving. We’re well diversified. A lot of our customers like that because they don’t have to get 10 different contractors lined up. We can smash it, dig the hole, backfill it, grade it, put the asphalt down and lay the sod if they want us to, and they only have to deal with one contractor.” Kjellberg and his wife and co-president, Elizabeth Kjellberg, started RJK Contracting three and a half years ago. “Before that it was my father, Dwight Kjellberg, and me working together in his company, Economy Excavating,” recalled Kjellberg. “It was a family business. We eventually split the business up, and then I split my business into two companies — Rock Solid, a landscape supply business, and RJK. We recently sold Rock Solid to concentrate on the contracting business.”
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Hands-on owner Roger Kjellberg calls himself a hands-on owner. “I enjoy running equipment and being out in the field,” he said. “I don’t want to be one of those owners who drives around and tells their guys what to do. I like to smash buildings and houses and set boulder walls. It’s fun.” Elizabeth Kjellberg runs RJK’s office. Robert “Rob” Cox is RJK’s estimator/project manager. Other key employees include Operators John Jerde and Jason Edwards and Lead Laborer Rob Doble. The company employs 15 people. “We deal with a few different contractors and we’re the prime contractor for a fair amount of our jobs,” noted Kjellberg. “We’re heading toward doing more prime work because subcontracting is a battle for pay until you develop a real good working relationship. We’re very cautious about who we work under as a subcontractor.” Kjellberg estimated that about half of his company’s projects are done as a subcontractor, with the rest as general contractor. “We’re trying to get it up to 75 percent prime work, although we’ll always do subcontracting,” he said. Demolition a specialty Kjellberg and his father went into demolition work after they purchased the equipment to move and haul topsoil and black dirt. “I had just graduated from high school and we had all this equipment, so we bid on some commercial jobs and some park jobs,” he recalled. “We just fell into demolition work and found that we could do it well. “We were only doing a couple of houses a year for the longest time, and now we’ve found that it’s a real |
RJK Contracting
co-owners Elizabeth
Kjellberg and Roger
Kjellberg with their
one-year-old
daughter, Mailee.