Equipment World Digital Magazine
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and we had a blast doing it." But in 2003, a friend living in the beautiful Utah desert asked Feller to design and build a privacy wall that would blend into the landscape. That wall became a beautiful mile- long stone barrier. "That's when we realized there's a whole new avenue of excavation here," Feller recalls. Allen brought his boys up in the business and his son Tyson liked working with heavy equipment so much that following the privacy wall job he suggested they split off from Feller Stone and go into com- mercial excavation. So in 2003 Allen and Tyson formed Feller Enterprises with a couple of excavators and a wheel loader. "When we split, I agreed to do all the quarrying for my brother so I took all the equipment," Feller says. "We're not afraid" In 2005, the St. George area saw massive flooding, giving Feller Enterprises the company's first shot at what would become a core part of its business: placing riprap. Feller describes the work as "plac- ing rocks in a way to stop Mother Nature from ripping them out." "And I love it," he continues. "On one of our biggest jobs we spent 40 days digging, quarrying, hauling and placing more than 100,000 tons of rock. We've just learned that if you can get a job out in the boondocks— out in the rocks— you're in one of the prettiest places in the world." When the recession hit, Feller saw many friends and competitors fold. The Fellers resolved to stay in business no matter what, so the company slimmed down, selling off much of its equipment. And they looked for work outside of their normal geographic area. In December 2008, Allen left Tyson with a crew to handle local jobs and took a job in Texas with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Resources Conservation Service, building headwalls and set- ting riprap and gabion baskets. "I think that challenge stirred up a lot of that feeling when it's look- ing tough, and your blood boils, and you crank it harder and we just got aggressive," Allen Feller says. "We're not afraid to do anything." Allen says the job saved the company and forged an important relationship with the NRCS which continues to this day. "We loved fixing something that was broken," Feller says. "I think a lot of what saved us was Allen's ambition," Tyson Feller says of his father. "He's not ever afraid to go and do something that maybe is a little bit new. I think we were lucky too, that myself and our guys were able to stay back and find more work here at home." Kathleen Pinckney with the NRCS said it was Feller's flexibility, at- tention to detail and willingness to give customers exactly what they need that began what was a three- year stretch of constant work for the company. "If you walked out there and said, 'This is not what we asked for,' he got it done. And he generally would go over and above," she says. Today the company specializes in flood control and soil stabilization projects, employs 12 people and does an annual volume between $3 million and $5 million. "It's always nice to drive around town after a flood comes through and see how well the riprapping worked," Tyson Feller says. "A lot of people think what we do is all the same. But all the projects are so different in the process and chal- lenges themselves." A good man is hard to find And while ambition and riprap- ping saved the company, Allen and Tyson Feller say their attention to detail and the talent of their em- ployees has made them successful. "Part of our success is that most of our guys started with us and now they're like us," Allen Feller explains. "They take care of our cli- ents like we do to the point that the clients have started asking for the guys who work for me by name." "The guys that we have held on to have put us where we are," agrees Tyson Feller. "We have some excellent operators who are so ver- satile and able to do what we need them to do. But they're also just good guys and we do everything we can to take care of them." Just as countless other contractors across the United States, both Allen January 2016 | EquipmentWorld.com 60 contractor of the year | continued Years ago, Tyson Feller (Left) convinced his father Allen (Right) to transition the family business from selling rock to commercial excavation.