A Salute to a Linder Customer: SMITH-ROWE, LLC

Like many successful businesses, Smith-Rowe began as two guys with an idea, some determination and a little desperation. David Rowe and Russell Smith met by chance while working on a bridge project for David’s father and quickly became friends.

“Russell and I started the company in the basement of his house in December 1982, and we agreed he would do the field work and I would run the office,” recalled David, who is the President. “It was great timing because Russell was without work, and I was about to be out of a job. My father allowed us to run our business through his company for a while until we started bidding against him. By then we had built up a little cash and could make it on our own.”

The duo’s new company was located in Mount Airy, N.C., and focused on providing quality bridge work. Although Russell has since passed away and David serves as the mayor of Mount Airy; David’s son, Locke, now leads the business and has expanded its operations since joining full time in 2005.

“When my dad and Russell started, they were basically bridge contractors,” noted Locke. “Now, we take on more lead contracting roles with projects and have branched out into a lot of other areas of road building. We do very little private work and instead devote most of our time to public contracts.

“What really helped us was the recession,” continued Locke. “The government tried to pull the country out of the economic downturn by pumping money into infrastructure. Our market never really slowed down, and we were able to pick up some good equipment at auction.”

Since then, the company has grown to more than 340 employees and focuses on assignments throughout North Carolina, although crews have traveled as far as Atlanta. Smith-Rowe provides a wide range of services, including grading, earth and bridge work, clearing, grubbing, demolition, wet utilities, storm drainage and trucking. A commitment to hiring the best people while retaining a family atmosphere has helped the firm stay even-keeled through its expansion.

“Our people are the most important part of the business, because it takes everybody pulling together to make a company successful,” said Locke. “We could do less quality and a higher quantity of work; however, reputation is critical. Our employees are the reason for where we are today.”

Recent success

Smith-Rowe’s good name helped it land the company’s largest contract to date.

“The project is a joint venture with E.S. Wagner to finish the last section of the Greensboro Urban Loop,” said Locke. “On this contract we are performing the clearing and grubbing on more than 300 acres, wet utility installations, building 10 mechanically stabilized earth retaining walls, one temporary structure and 10 permanent bridges.”

In total, the company has completed more than 800 projects through the last four decades. At any given time, it has 40 to 50 active jobsites. Recently, Smith-Rowe finished clearing debris that had piled up along a bridge on the Cape Fear River during Hurricane Florence.

“We used a barge to float an excavator equipped with a grapple that could reach down and pick up all of the stuff from the river,” described Locke. “It was about a 300- by 600-foot area that got bigger closer to the bottom of the river where all the material had accumulated. We built a barge landing so we could float debris to the shore and haul it off.”

Back on dry land in Winston-Salem, Smith-Rowe also works at APAC Plant 5, a hot-mix asphalt facility. There, it crushes 50,000 tons of reclaimed asphalt pavement for the plant annually.

Pleasure to work with Linder

Since its first job in the early 80s, Smith-Rowe has relied on Linder Industrial Machinery for its equipment needs.

“Thinking back to when my father was in the grading business, he always said if it wasn’t for Mitchell Distributing Company (now Linder) he would not have made it,” said David. “It’s good to remember all of the people who have been involved with Linder. It’s been a pleasure to work with them.”

Steady growth throughout the last decade led to a large investment in iron and a current fleet totaling more than 100 pieces of Komatsu machinery. Today, Locke works closely with Linder Sales Rep Joshua Prevette to ensure he has the right equipment for each job.

“Komatsu excavators are superior machines, and I really like the new dozers,” shared Locke. “The dozers have a slanted nose that lets an operator see the blade, have excellent visibility from the cab and the feel is great. Once we committed to Komatsu, it just made sense to continue that with the rest of our fleet.

“Purchasing a majority of our machines from the same distributor has been an advantage,” added Locke. “Komatsu Financial is great, and we really like Komatsu CARE. It helps to have complimentary service done correctly through the warranty period.”

Komatsu’s KOMTRAX remote monitoring system offers an additional advantage for Smith-Rowe in keeping tabs on and maintaining its fleet.

“It provides everything from help in locating all of our equipment, to daily working hours and idle time,” explained Locke. “We get monthly idling reports that we can forward to our operators to show where we can save money. KOMTRAX makes that possible.”

Looking ahead

When David started Smith-Rowe, he couldn’t imagine where it would be today.

“The end of my vision happened when we grew to four crews, and that was about 30 crews ago,” joked David. “The company has far exceeded my expectations. It’s all Locke and the leadership group today.”

Locke envisions Smith-Rowe continuing to grow and provide additional services without oversaturating the market.

“We want to be the company everyone wants to call, whether it be a prime contractor, the DOT or whomever,” said Locke. “We’re going to continue to get better in all that we do and provide the best service possible for our customers.”