Rick Royals is about to add another Marini milling machine to his fleet.
Royals, vice president and owner of Royals Contracting Inc., has been a customer of Marini America for more than a year and is putting together an extensive inventory of Marini equipment. Tom Chastain, regional sales manager of Marini America’s Southeast region, has been instrumental in meeting the company’s needs.
Royals Contracting is expanding as a company, and “they are gaining in strength and gaining in size,” Chastain said.
Royals Contracting has seen its business increase in the highway market, where the company has been working as a subcontractor to Rea Contracting, LLC, C.C. Magnum, Inc. and Rifenburg Construction Inc. On numerous projects with these contractors, Royals has used a total of 13,000 tons (11,700 t) of various asphalt mixes for patching in front of resurfacing crews.
Royals owns a Marini MP 1300 milling machine and also has a second MP 1300 that is on rental purchase. Additionally, the company has an MP 2100 milling machine on rental and owns a 331 Marini paver.
“My business relationship with Marini has been fabulous,” Royals explained. “They have lived up to their promises, ... which were to help me in any way possible utilize their equipment…. They have never let me down in any situation I have encountered.”
There are benefits, according to Chastain, that come with owning your own equipment. Royals did not own a milling machine prior to the MP 1300, the first in its fleet. Since Royals now owns its own milling machine, it does not have to subcontract out its milling work.
In the construction industry, time is of the essence, especially when your company is growing.
“It’s all about time and getting the job finished,” said Chastain. “You can schedule your work a lot easier because everything is in-house.”
Royals Contracting gets plenty of use out of its equipment.
According to Chastain, “[The company] runs both milling machines five to six days a week, some days around the clock. They are going at all times, and the paver is going at all times.”
With this type of heavy usage, it is important to keep the equipment in peak condition. With each sale, Marini offers a variety of warranties and maintenance agreements, which are tailored to each company’s needs.
Marini takes a hands-on approach when following up on its equipment. The company has set procedures for maintenance, which includes self-performing the 100- hour service. Nevertheless, the machine’s operator and mechanic are present to observe this process and are able to ask questions.
“Even after they get over 1,000 hours, we still check on our machines,” said Chastain, who has been employed with Marini America since June 2004. He has 10 years of experience in the asphalt industry.
Marini America is part of the Fayat Group road-building equipment division, which specializes in milling machines and pavers. While the machines are made in Italy, the manufacturer has an American office based in Downingtown, PA.
Royals Contracting Inc. was founded in October 1995, and the company hired its first employee in February 1996. Royals is a woman-owned business enterprise based in Raleigh, NC, and a certified contractor that performs asphalt paving, patchwork, milling work and miscellaneous concrete work.
Pat Royals, company president, handles all of the office and administrative duties. There are currently 32 full-time employees helping to perform the $4.5 million worth of work that the company anticipates completing this year.
“The amazing part of all of this is that we have never been in the phone book or yellow pages,” explained Rick Royals. “We strive to get up every day and approach what we do as helping people with their concerns and problems. This philosophy works because we look at doing the same for our employees, vendors, customers and even competitors –– only because we’re all in this together, trying to support our families, communities and others.”
Although a large portion of the company’s jobs are within a 30-mile radius of Raleigh, numerous golf course cart path projects have been completed in Pinehurst, Carthage, Sanford and Southern Pines, NC, over the past five years.
Today's top stories
