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A Ulland Brothers operator uses a huge new Komatsu WA800-3 wheel loader equipped with a 14.4 cubic yard bucket to charge a crusher at a crushing plant site near Virginia, Minn |
prep for a dormitory and some road building at College of St. Scholastica and site work at the Menards in Duluth. We have built soccer fields, football fields, baseball fields and quite a few golf courses. That’s why we don’t look at ourselves as just a road builder. We’ve worked hard at becoming diversified.”
Currently Ulland Brothers is working on a $30 million high school project in Two Harbors that involves concrete, curb and gutter, Ulland said. “We’re doing all the site and utility work as well as the base and paving associated with the project.”
Ulland company president Mike Welch said, “We have two large street and utility jobs in the town of Virginia where we’re completely rebuilding the streets, including sewer and water.” Welch joined the company in July 2001 after working with a heavy highway contractor in Wisconsin for more than 25 years.
At Ulland’s Albert Lea location, Welch explained, “We work within a 60- to 70-mile radius of the hot mix plant. We do some site grading, small jobs and bike trails. We own aggregate sources in the area, which we use to supply our projects and to supply readymix companies as well.”
The company also has quarries in Duluth and International Falls. “We do a lot of work with aggregates in the Virginia-area mines, and we’ve got numerous gravel pits throughout northeastern Minnesota,” Ulland reported. The company uses about half the material and sells half to others. For the past 15 years, Ulland has supplied ballast to the Canadian National Railroad, crushing and then loading the hard rock aggregate directly onto rail cars that carry it to sites in the U.S. and Canada.
The crushing operation in
Virginia makes a variety of
aggregate products,
including ballast for the
Canadian National Railroad.
Ulland’s diversity has proven to be a huge advantage, Welch said. “It helps us offer a complete package on some projects we bid, and we’re flexible. When the economy’s down in one sector, we can switch gears and take our people and our equipment to do work in a different sector. Ulland has been able to swing with the tide when the economy changes because they’ve been through it numerous times.”
Teamwork and trust
As Bob Ulland sees it, the real reason the business
has remained successful for more than 75 years is
that “people like working with our people.” The
company has built solid relationships with customers
and suppliers, and has created a sense of teamwork
among its employees.
“We do what we say, and we’ve got people that really take pride in living up to that. We were fortunate to have really good leadership in the early years. The traditions they built and the values that were there have continued through a large group of people. We value our people, we think highly of their work, we develop them and give them the chance to do things.”