60 years in business is quite a milestone for any company large or small. This is especially true when you contemplate the fact that over half of the nation’s businesses shut down their first year, and only five in one hundred make it to five years. Here today and gone tomorrow is quite often the epitaph of many a business, so what is the secret of longevity? For Nixon-Egli Equipment Co., the secret is that slow and steady almost always wins the race. It takes talent, vision, lots of hard work and a little bit of luck to remain viable in an industry as competitive as the heavy equipment business. It seems as though every mission statement you read these days proclaims the company’s commitment to service through integrity and honesty, but living up to those standards is what separates the men from the boys. Nixon-Egli has proven their commitment to their customers time and time again over the past half century.
Above Paul R. Egli and James R. (Jim) Nixon, former partners and founders of Nixon-Egli Equipment Co.
The company’s name comes from the two founders of Nixon-Egli, Jim Nixon and Paul Egli. They both worked for American Hoist & Derrick back in the early 60s. Nixon traveled seven western states in sales for their H&B Asphalt subsidiary, while Egli served as a district representative for American Cranes, another subsidiary company. At the time, American Hoist & Derrick was a Fortune 500 company run by John Carrol. In 1965, Jim Nixon met with Carrol to see if there was an opportunity to start a dealership in Northern California. Carrol offered Nixon the distributorship on the condition that he take Paul Egli as a partner to handle inside operations. After meeting with Egli, Nixon jumped at the opportunity. Nixon-Egli Equipment Company, Inc. (Nixon-Egli) was born. Nixon owned 30 percent, Egli 30 percent and American Hoist & Derrick owned the remaining 40 percent. American Hoist & Derrick provided the partners with exclusive rights to sell their cranes, oil distributors, asphalt plants, rollers, trenchers, concrete batch plants, conveyors and sweepers. Nixon and Egli went right to work, starting out in an 8,000 square foot office in Emeryville. In 1970, the partners purchased a building and yard on Clawiter Road in Hayward. The first five years were difficult as the fledgling business established itself in Northern California, but eventually the business created a foothold as it moved from red into black.
Jim Nixon’s son, Steve, started working for the company in 1965 at the original Emeryville office. He began by working summers and eventually went full-time at the age of 20, but Uncle Sam changed his plans. Steve was drafted in 1967 and sent to Vietnam. Steve spent exactly 23 months and 28 days in the Army, with 363 days in the field, before being honorably discharged. Once out, he spent the better part of seven months exploring and bartending in Europe from the seat of a Norton motorcycle. He then returned home, beginning a new chapter in his life at San Francisco State studying history. Steve’s goal throughout high school and Vietnam had been to become a history professor; however he discovered that he lacked a teacher’s temperament. At this point, Steve entered the family business.
Steve Nixon’s earliest memory of the equipment business goes back to when he was five or six and living in Azusa. “My dad worked out in the San Fernando Valley for Cook Brothers and his main task each week was to sell a new Ford tractor, because if he could do that, he would have enough money to pay the mortgage,” says Steve Nixon. “One Saturday, my dad had to go out to the San Fernando office to meet a customer and brought me along. Dad put me up on a tractor and I had the best time of my life. That’s my first memory of the equipment business.” Steve paid his dues by working in and learning every aspect of the business. From parts and service to customer support and then on to sales and eventually management, Steve has done almost every job in the company as he moved through the ranks. In 1973, he took his first step into ownership when he bought Paul Egli’s shares of the Southern California branch of the company.
In 1971, Nixon-Egli expanded into Southern California. Their operations began out of the American factory store in Irwindale, where they remained for just over a year before moving to Clark Street in Santa Fe Springs. In the early 70s, the Blaw-Knox paver line took off rapidly. Nixon-Egli sold Blaw-Knox to nearly every major paving company in California over the next few years.
Things were looking good for Nixon-Egli, but 1978 brought sadness and great loss when Jim Nixon died. Steve Nixon bought his father’s shares after his death. He then bought out American Hoist & Derrick’s shares, and agreed to part ways as their distributor. At that time, American represented 80 percent of Nixon-Egli’s business and Steve was forced to find a way to remain in business with just the Blaw-Knox paver and Athey sweeper lines. “Today, there is no golden goose or one product line that without which we could not survive,” says Steve. “When 80 percent of your business is taken away, you realize that you never want to be put in that position again, and that is why today there is no single manufacturer that accounts for more than 35 percent of our business. By limiting the percentage of our business that any single manufacturer provides, we preserve our ability to tell both our customers and the factories the unvarnished truth. Our job as a dealer is to be an honest broker of opinion to our customers and to the factory. If we are less than that, we simply are not doing our job. We will not sell an inferior product line or model, and we have had to part ways with a couple of manufacturers over the years because our customers deserve better. You are only as good as your people and the product lines you service and sell.”
Steve became the sole owner of Nixon-gli in 1982, when he bought out Paul Egli’s ownership in Northern California. Nixon-Egli took on Bucyrus Erie when American Hoist & Derrick left and soon after added Galion cranes, motor graders and pavers. They added American Crane back on when Bucyrus Erie exited the crane industry in 1984. The 1980s and 1990s would bring many other lines, some successful and some not. They added Wirtgen and LeeBoy in the mid 1980s – two lines that would grow to dominate the milling and commercial paving world. In 1989, Nixon-Egli added Link-Belt cranes to replace American. Link-Belt cranes would grow to become one of Nixon-Egli’s flagship lines over the next 25 years.
In the 1980s, Nixon-Egli began to offer Link-Belt excavators and Kawasaki wheel loaders to the dirt and underground utility contractors. The move did not work out. It soon became obvious that while Nixon-Egli was thriving in the road building and heavy construction arena, they lacked the proper focus in the dirt industry. “We understand asphalt and we understand concrete and we get the guys that put it down. We understand cranes. We understand municipalities, with Carl Bahnsen at the helm of that division for more than 40 years,” says Steve. “I feel that we are the best in the business in these disciplines. But it became evident that to excel in the dirt business, you have to focus only on that dirt niche where volume is king. That’s not our core business.” Nixon-Egli refocused on its core industries as a result. Steve goes on to explain that they have made a few other mistakes over the years. “We couldn’t convince our sales reps to sell Gomaco, and lost the line because of that,” explains Steve. “We have had our share of failures and it is important that you learn from these risks gone wrong. As long as you figure out that you screwed up and can make it so it won’t happen again, you can move on to other battles.”
It is what Nixon-Egli has done right that contributed to their success. “One of our biggest challenges of being in business for 50 years would be the consolidation of the manufacturers. It is imperative that we look out for Nixon-Egli and our customers first,” says Steve. In 1994, Steve took a year away from the company. He did this to see how the company survived without his daily presence, and to spend more time with his family. He discovered, quite happily, that his company continued to grow and prosper in his absence. “We have very loyal and talented employees that don’t make promises they cannot stand behind. In this industry, you have to sell your customers over and over again,” says Steve. “You get one chance to do it right and that is our strength. We do it right the first time so that there will be a second, third, and fourth time.”
Steve became the sole owner of Nixon-Egli in 1982, when he bought out Paul Egli’s ownership in Northern California. Nixon-Egli took on Bucyrus Erie when American Hoist & Derrick left and soon after added Galion cranes, motor graders and pavers. They added American Crane back on when Bucyrus Erie exited the crane industry in 1984. The 1980s and 1990s would bring many other lines, some successful and some not. They added Wirtgen and LeeBoy in the mid 1980s – two lines that would grow to dominate the milling and commercial paving world. In 1989, Nixon-Egli added Link-Belt cranes to replace American. Link-Belt cranes would grow to become one of Nixon-Egli’s flagship lines over the next 25 years.
Today, Nixon-Egli operates out of two locations, one in Northern California in Tracy and the other in Southern California in Ontario. They moved from Clawiter Road in Hayward to Tracy in 1998 when they outgrew the old facility. Their Tracy facility is centrally located, on more than 5 acres, with 2,500 sq. feet of administration space and 17,500 sq. ft. for parts and service. In 2007, Nixon-Egli sold their Santa Fe Springs facility and purchased a beautiful new facility in Ontario. This sprawling location features 6,000 sq. ft. of office space with more than 35,000 sq. ft. under roof for parts and service, on a total of 6 acres.
Like his father, James Nixon also remembers his first exposure to the construction equipment industry. “I remember being at one of Nixon-Egli’s open houses when I was 5 or 6, and my father let me get into the cab of one of the big Link-Belt cranes,” says James. “I was just in awe of the machine. Going from playing with toys in my sandbox to sitting on the real thing for the very first time, it sticks in my mind to this day.” James worked for his father’s company part time from the seventh grade through college, because working for the family business was always his plan. Like his father before him, he started out assisting others in various departments such as parts, shipping, and even janitorial work. James graduated with a business degree from Whittier College and went full-time at Nixon-Egli within days of his graduation. His first full time job sent him to work for Carl Bahnsen in the municipal division. He worked in municipal sales covering the Central Valley and Central Coast of California, then in construction & municipal sales covering the San Diego Region. He learned a lot in these positions about building relationships, and satisfying the customer after the sale. After Jack Rogers retired in 2010, James earned the spot as sales manager where he reorganized the crane sales territories and grew both rentals and sales to a new level. Additionally, James changed how Wirtgen Group products were sold and supported by shifting Mike Burns from his position in service to a role as a specialist dedicated to their sale and support, a move which has increased Wirtgen Group market share across the board. In 2013, Steve appointed James as the COO and turned over day to day operations to him, allowing Steve to concentrate on long term projects & strategic growth. “It is no longer about walking into a customer’s office and giving them a price and it probably never really was. We focus on our customers’ actual needs, finding ways to solve their problems, and taking care of the customer after the sale,” says James. “It is all about building relationships and even friendships. We have never walked away from a machine and we never will. I think that is just one of the things that sets us apart.”
Charity is extremely important to the Nixon family. Steve and his family purposefully look for non mainstream charities with a focus on helping young children, where their donations can make a difference. They heavily support the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, where they help to coordinate and financially support an annual golf tournament. The proceeds go to pay for education and college for the children of special operations soldiers killed in combat, and provide help for their widows. They also donate to the Progeria Research Foundation, which is looking for a cure for progeria, a disease where a child ages prematurely. This is an extremely rare genetic disease that affects only one in approximately six million children, but due to that rarity, little research is done.
The Nixons truly care about the people they come in contact and interact with on a personal or business basis. “Doing what is right when no one is looking is in my opinion the true litmus test,” says Steve Nixon. “The character of any company is clearly measured by the actions of its leaders and employees. I believe that always doing the right thing, not necessarily the profitable thing, is what has allowed us to remain in business for 50 years.”
According to Steve and James, they will remain a specialty dealer and continue to look for special niches with quality products to sell. Rentals in Nevada are growing steadily, and Nixon-Egli is looking there for future growth. They also continue to grow their equipment rental fleet. Nixon-Egli started out years ago with one or two rental cranes and now have over 40 cranes available to their rental and re-rent client base, as well as several crushers, screens, pavers, rollers, and milling machines.
In a world of startups and quick flips, it is refreshing to see a family business that has lasted 50 years and shows no signs of slowing. Nixon-Egli’s investment in employees, solid relationships and partnerships with customers and vendors has set them on a solid foundation poised for growth into the next half century.
Here’s to Nixon-Egli Equipment Company on their Golden 50th Anniversary!
Nixon-Egli Equipment Company has been serving our equipment needs for fifteen plus years and continues to strive to make sure that Anrak Corporation has what it needs to be successful. A large part of Anrak’s success is due, in part, to the fact that Nixon Egli’s team goes above and beyond in service, all hours of the day, to take care of any problems we may have. Anrak is a customer driven company that works day and night to support its customers’ needs with the help and support of Nixon-Egli. Randy Davis, their parts manager, is available 24/7 and always works hard to keep us up and running. Randy does everything in his power to make sure Anrak has the parts it needs in a timely fashion. Everyone at Nixon-Egli is dedicated to keeping our business on the leading edge and that makes for a great partnership. Service Manager, Sunil Bali, also has great knowledge and provides great support when our Wirtgen grinders have issues. He provides quick and precise information to help us make the best decisions possible in regards to our equipment. Anrak can’t thank the guys at Nixon Egli enough for their great support and continued relationships in making Anrak successful."
Over the past 10 years there have been countless occasions where Dave Heitmiller and Nixon-Egli’s service team have walked our operators through problems. Whether it was over the phone, or coming into our shop assisting our mechanics, or in the field helping us through challenges we could not take care of ourselves, they were always available to us. On new equipment there were several situations where problems were solved by the Nixon-Egli service department and not the factory. There is no doubt that the efforts and expertise of the Nixon-Egli staff have directly affected the number of Link-Belt cranes sold in California year after year."
I love Nixon-Egli. It is all about service with them. When I call them and say ‘crane down,’ it means something. They react. If it’s the middle of the night, they are on their way. Their parts manager has bailed us out many times in the middle of the night. He has personally driven 100 miles at midnight to bring us a part... The folks at Nixon-Egli are key to this whole thing."