Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/933470
EquipmentWorld.com | January 2018 49 I f you can't work hard, you won't last long in Texas. It's just part of the culture, and something the world saw this summer when Hurricane Harvey dumped 5 feet of rain along the Texas Gulf Coast. Just east of Beaumont, KAT Excavation and Construc- tion was swamped by that deluge. Flooded shop and offices. Water up to trucks' floorboards. Hundreds of thousands of people without homes. But as with so many others, Kerry and Belinda Trest, son Chris and their employees pulled on the waders, fired up the bass boats and started fighting back. Hard work for sure, but nothing this fifth-generation construction family couldn't handle. It's what Texans do. Venturing out Kerry Trest grew up in the construction business. As the years went by, he decided he would try it on his own. He started out small, with a chainsaw cutting trees. He rented a dozer to do a few jobs and just kept going. He bought his first piece of equipment, a Cat D4 dozer, in 1989 and started site work and land clearing, officially incorporating the company in 1992. In 1996, Kerry also saw some regional opportunities in trucking and bought dump trucks. "We got so busy, we couldn't find enough dump trucks to keep our equipment busy, because everybody was busy at the same time," says Kerry. "So that's when we started buying dump trucks. We went from a construction company to a dump truck company." By 2009, Kerry had 28 trucks and was hauling mate- rial for himself and other contractors in the area. "At that point, we pretty much quit doing civil work and went 95 percent oilfield. We ran sand pits, sold rock and materials and built pads and retention ponds," says Kerry. Recession But as usually happens, the price of oil dropped. The country entered a deep re- cession. Kerry cut his fleet to 15 trucks and started looking to diversify, primarily back to civil construction. Kerry and his team moved their focus to jobs in the field. Today, the company is back up to 22 trucks, five operators, three mechanics, a helper, 22 to 24 drivers, two dispatchers, and support staff members. The recession also taught KAT Excavating some tough lessons about business. "You can't live on a promise of others, but we still have to live up to the promises we make," Kerry says. "We contractor of the year finalist | by Tom Jackson | TJackson@randallreilly.com Fifth-generation construction family prevails with hard work, community spirit and Texas attitude Kerry and Belinda Trest, KAT Excavation and Construction City, State: Sour Lake, Texas Year Started: 1989 Number of employees: 41 Annual revenue: $7 million to $10 million Markets served: Grading and excavating, land clear- ing, material hauling, soil stabiliza- tion, tank pads, ring levees, pipelines, construction trucking, commercial, residential and industrial