Company History

Bejac Corporation was founded in 1953 as a pipeline construction company. Second generation management steered the company towards underground water construction primarily for municipalities. The company's philosophy was to purchase the tools required for operations and avoid the pitfalls of having to take jobs at cost or less to remain solvent.

In 1984, Carol Burnip assumed control of Bejac Corporation due to the death of her husband who was then president and sole shareholder. Mrs. Burnip was not sure she wanted to continue operations as a construction company and hired her son-in-law, Ron Barlet, to help determine what path the company would follow. Their decision was to not pursue pipeline construction, but to liquidate older assets and rent the newer equipment, to determine if Bejac could be a viable business.

By 1986, the construction economy was booming and Bejac Corporation was firmly entrenched in the heavy equipment rental business. Management operated in a conservative fashion, purchasing a few more pieces of equipment "used" and using outside services for trucking and specialized labor. In 1987, Bejac took a major undertaking by adding a new segment to its business, the rental of compaction equipment, predominantly light equipment. Due to financial constraints and a relatively short track record as a rental company, light equipment rentals provided the opportunity to expand the business and build a large customer base. It would be this decision that would direct the company for the next couple of years.

With over two years of experience in compaction equipment, Bejac was approached late in 1988 by HAMM Compactors U.S.A. to represent their line of equipment. The company was now able to offer compaction equipment not only for rent, but also for sale. Having grown to 18 employees and now having the ability to perform nearly all functions in-house, Bejac now had the ability to not only control the cost of doing business, but was also able to control the quality of service and support for its customers. In no way had the company reached maturation, but rather the ground was being laid in terms of the company's philosophy for the way it would do business.

By early 1992, Bejac had realigned itself again. Small equipment rentals and sales had been de-emphasized in favor of the growing heavy equipment fleet. The excavator, loader, and other equipment lines were added to, bringing the heavy equipment rental fleet to 85 units by the year's end. Bejac had 40 HAMM Compactors in its fleet and had sold half as many to end users, becoming one of HAMM U.S.A.'s top three dealers. Bejac had the in-house ability to rent, service, and sell its products through an aggressive sales force and a commitment to a consistently high level of service.

Throughout the early 1990's, Bejac continued to improve its facilities and conduct itself as a true dealership. These included the addition of new offices, additional adjacent yard space, significant computer enhancements, additional office and storage space for parts, a hydraulic hose making machine, a new heavy capacity low bed truck/trailer, and many, many others. These improvements and expansions would allow for the integration of new lines of products as well as the promotion of parts and service, further strengthening its foundation and its ability to support its customers.

In March of 1993, Bejac became the Link-Belt excavator dealer for Southern California. By the end of 1993, Bejac Corporation had obtained a 15% market share based on "first in the dirt" numbers. This was achieved even though Link-Belt market share, for the previous three years, was virtually zero. Just as Bejac Corporation was able to successfully pioneer the new HAMM compactor product, it was also able to resurrect an extremely dormant equipment line.

Due to the success with HAMM compactors and Link-Belt excavators, management believed that this was the correct direction to follow, adding single line brands, as a method to expand the operation as a full-line distributor. This allowed the company to partnership itself with manufacturers that specialized in certain areas, thereby helping the company to gain market share by equipment type as opposed to trying to attack the full-market of construction equipment.

With these successes to act as the motivator, Bejac Corporation actively sought and obtained distribution rights to Kawasaki Wheel Loaders. For several years, this product line also had been neglected with no rental activity and very few unit sales. Bejac officially signed for all of the major Southern California counties in 1995 and was able to obtain Top Ten Status and Quota Achiever in its very first year as distributor. In 1996, it also achieved the same recognition, but more importantly, was able to obtain a 19% "first in the dirt" and "sold units" market share versus a 44% market share for the leading competitor, Caterpillar. Although this number is significant, it is even more impressive because this 44% number represents a total number for all three Cat dealers who distribute in Bejac's service area.

Into 2000, the theme for Bejac Corporation could be summarized as follows: "We can not be everything to everybody, but in the areas we choose to support, we intend to be the best." In order to complete this mission, Bejac continued to improve and grow in every area. A new computer system has facilitated the ability to monitor and control departmental activities as well as improve parts inventories and service capabilities. Additional service and lube vehicles have been added to expand field service capabilities. Yard facilities have expanded to accommodate growing service demands and to continue independence from outside services. A full capability machine shop, welding, line boring, and painting, are just some of the services now provided. In addition, every employee continues to receive ongoing training through "Bejac's Commitment to Knowledge Program" that includes service, sales and continuing education through manufacturers' schools, trade organizations, independent schools and seminars, and further offers reimbursement for education expenses for those taking courses on their own.

In 2008, Bejac Corporation once again expanded, this time assuming territories of failed dealerships to now include branch locations in Sacramento, Redding and the Bay area, with coverage now throughout the state of California. With this expansion, the original plans to focus on best single brand products were expanded out of typical construction markets to include TimberPro Feller Bunchers, Link-Belt Log Loaders, and Log Max processing heads to name just a few. By 2010, Bejac Corporation addressed the growing demand for customer support required in the emerging recycling equipment arena through the addition once again of premier products produced by Sennebogen, Bandit, Komptech and Genesis, to support scrap, municipal waste, green waste, and composting to name just a few.

Today, management believes that the future will only support dealerships that have the ability to not only provide consistent high quality service to their customers, but also those that can expose customers to new products, attachments, and techniques, both through sales and rentals. Although competitors seems to be engulfed in the sale side of the transaction, Bejac will continue to remind itself, as well as its manufacturers, that there still remains tremendous opportunities for the parts and service support of its customers who would prefer to focus on their core business operations and not be hampered by worrying about maintaining or repairing equipment. Dealers will need to be adaptive to changing customer needs and will need to develop marketing programs to facilitate acquisition of these new products. Bejac Corporation believes that it will continue to position itself in this direction to develop a strong market share hold and to continue to grow as a heavy equipment supplier, both in construction and in the specialty segments that often require even greater product support.