UAPA is happy to spotlight the Goodfellow Corporation, a company set apart in the paving industry due to its values, employees and exceptional products.
In 1960, Lynn Goodfellow founded Goodfellow Corporation in Southern California. The company serves the aggregate and paving industries and expanded over time. By the early 1970s, the company started specializing in the aggregate and paving market in Kanab. Goodfellow expanded to Boulder City, Nevada, in 1980 and Lindon, Utah, in 1998. Currently, the company does business in California, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. Goodfellow Corporation designs, fabricates, sells, and rents equipment. It also supports that equipment through parts and service.
The company’s leaders have always had different ideas about goals. Many people focus solely on maximizing profit, but their measure of success depends more on having a good relationship with employees and customers. When Kurt Goodfellow, the current owner, was in his early 20s, a successful business owner told him, “if you run your company the right way, you’ll have a $20 million business.” At the time, the possibility of that kind of success was far from Kurt’s mind. Still, he thought the company’s bottom line should be focusing on providing personalized help to customers, and if the company did that, making a profit would follow naturally. That mindset was in line with what the company’s other leaders thought. They decided to continue building a solid, honest, reputable company where the emphasis would be on treating customers right, and they believed growth would follow.
Their decision paid off. Goodfellow has far exceeded that original $20 million goal because they had the right focus for what they wanted. Kurt said, “I hope we continue to improve and get better at what we do. That philosophy hasn’t steered us wrong yet.”
“We have years of knowledge and experience in the industry,” said Trevor Brindley, the general manager in Utah. “We have people who know what it takes to take care of our customers and see their needs through. We offer exceptional products and know what the industry demands.”
A recent example of Goodfellow’s customer support occurred in Tooele, Utah. The paving equipment being used by a customer broke down on a time-sensitive project. Matt Manookin, the Utah service manager, said, “Goodfellow was able to source the needed parts and get the equipment up and producing in under 24 hours. Breakdowns are always at the most inopportune times, often at night or on weekends, but Goodfellow has committed service technicians with expansive industry knowledge. Their skills and dedication ensure that Goodfellow can solve the most technical issues and meet ever-tightening needs and expectations of customers in the state, federal, and private sectors.”
Goodfellow’s leaders are always working to improve the company, but the most recent changes have involved increasing inventory to meet customers’ needs. Jake Hansen, a Goodfellow sales staff member, said, “The most important industry shift I’ve seen recently has been the unprecedented demand with supply chain shortages.”
The company now has more equipment and more parts available to meet increased demand. “We have been proactive in sourcing and ordering new equipment,” said Trevor. “At the rate we are growing, Goodfellow is on track to increase annual sales by 20%.”
Alicia Bodily, a market and content specialist at Goodfellow, added, “Like everyone else, we are still trying to figure out global supply chain issues.” Goodfellow has taken a hands-on-approach to shortages and has worked directly one-on-one with the dealer.
A major component that sets Goodfellow apart is the company’s ability to customize projects specifically to customers and their needs. “There’s rarely a project that is easily duplicated,” said Alicia. “The customer’s needs are so intricate and different that our engineering, fabricating, and design teams need to be well educated and experienced enough to pull these plans together. Goodfellow engineers its own chassis, stands, parts and other components to meet those needs. It’s also extremely helpful to have a strong relationship with our factory dealers. Bill Royce is our dealer representative with Astec Industries. Because he knows how important our customer relationships are, he’s always eager to expedite Goodfellow’s needs and keep us as a priority with equipment inventory. And we pull the rest together.”
When Alicia commented on the relationship between UAPA and the company, she said, “UAPA reaches all our customer base within the industry. Being part of UAPA helps us know what the demands are in other companies so we can address them. More importantly, UAPA events like the golf tournaments and conferences give us a platform where we can have a social experience with our customers. We can get to know each other personally in a laid-back situation instead of being limited to meeting in an office setting.”
While preparing for this article, Alicia mentioned a recent conversation she had with Bryan Ady, a paving sales staff member. He emphasized that everyone who drives on roads is a paving industry customer and that Goodfellow wants to provide the best products possible to facilitate building roads. “We are customer-centric,” said Alicia. “That’s what sets us apart, and that’s what I want UAPA’s members to know about us.”
