Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/668965
2 4 | BULLDOG | 2 0 1 6 V 1 "That's a very fair assessment," Mahler says. "We do have high expectations. Maybe it's because our customers have high expec- tations of us and we rise to the level our cus- tomers expect. We expect our vendors to do the same for us, and TEC does. They're a very supportive dealership and we have an excellent relationship." All in the family Graniterock is still owned by the descendants of founder AR Wilson, and it prides itself on its relationship with its workforce, Mahler says. "It's a company that invests in its people. They'll help you further your education, encourage you and let you take risks." "The people who go to work at Graniterock typically stay at Graniterock for a long time," he says, "because once you've gone to work for Granite rock, you really don't want to go anywhere else." It goes back to the owners, said Mahler. They've always been very big on investing in their people. The investment has paid off. Many of the company's employees have worked at Graniterock for decades and in some instances they are the second or third gener- ation in their family to work for the company. Denny Mahler is a case in point. His grandfa- ther and father both worked for Graniterock, as did his two older brothers. Denny has worked with the company, as a contracted owner operator or as an employee, for over 40 years. A 115-year-old quarry enters the computer age A brief history of Graniterock Arthur Roberts Wilson and Warren Reynolds Porter founded the "Granite Rock Company," in 1900. They had pur- chased a little quarry near the town of Aromas on the Central Coast of California. The quarry held deep deposits of granite and sat astride that big crack in California's earth, the San Andreas Fault. Being atop the fault was serendipity. The seismic activity in the region pre-fractured the granite, making quarrying the rock a little eas- ier than normal. This was an important consideration at a time when sledgehammers and muscle were the principal means of breaking rock into usable chunks. The company's prosperity has always closely paralleled the fortunes of the Central Coast, so when adversity came to the region, Graniterock also suffered. The great San Francisco earthquake struck in 1906, causing damage that closed the company for a while. But with misfortune came opportunity: San Francisco needed to rebuild, and Granite Rock quickly got back in business to help supply the raw materials. As the automobile grew more prominent, so too did the need for paved roads. Graniterock was well positioned to supply road-building materials. The Wall Street crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed made for lean times, and the company was forced to sell off some of its holdings. But toward the end of the 1930's construction in the region rebounded again, thanks in part to tensions in Europe and the impending war, which prompted the building of military bases in the region such as Fort Ord. Again Graniterock was there to provide construction materials. After the war and through the end of the 20th century, Graniterock continued to grow and modernize its facilities as construction boomed in the nearby San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas. Good fortune has undoubtedly contributed to Graniterock's survival. Yet the many awards and accolades the company has received over the years suggest that quality of materials and workmanship have been the main catalyst for success. Such recognition reached a mile- stone in 1992 when President George H. W. Bush presented Graniterock with the presti- gious Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award, the highest honor a company can achieve for quality. Success has brought expansion. The com- pany now has several facilities in the region and provides road building and transportation of construction materials throughout California's Central Coast. AT WORK Graniterock's first quarry, located near the town of Aromas on the Central Coast of California, is still going strong after 115 years. Considering its age, you might think the technology on the site is closer to 19th Century design than 21st. Not so. The AR Wilson Quarry, named for one of the compa- ny's founders, is today fully automated, providing computerized, self-activated loading access to customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The computerized loading system is called GraniteXpress. Customers are provided a kind of debit card that they use to initiate billing. They pull their trucks into the loading area and activate the system. An accurately weighed load is dumped into the truck quickly and automatically. Graniterock claims that loading times are reduced by some 70 percent over traditional systems. According to the company's website, "there is nothing else like it in the world."