A1 EXCAVATING
Ahead of the Change
Peterbilt helps A1 companies hold aim on moving target
T
erry Pecha has seen plenty of change over the three-plus decades
of his career at A1 Excavating in Bloomer, Wis.
Some of the change he anticipated, like the market he saw in
the early 1990s for a low-boy equipment hauling operation. The
resulting company he formed, A1 Express, complemented the existing A1
Excavating by getting its equipment to job sites. But it also opened up a
new revenue stream by turning that low-boy hauler into a for-hire carrier for
other equipment carriers, putting a jolt into the growth curve of everything
under the A1 banner.
Some of the change he didn't anticipate. The economic downturn
starting around 2005 hit construction as hard as any sector out there,
and Pecha admits it was not only hard to see it coming, but hard to climb