KC Bobcat 50th Anniversary
– Tim O’Bryan, President
“We can’t talk about our 50th anniversary without remembering where we started. The first KC Bobcat store opened in December of 1974. At that time, we had just six employees, but we grew quickly. By the time Berry Companies acquired us in 2000, we had three locations in Blue Springs, Olathe, and Grandview. It’s hard to believe that we now have seven locations in Kansas and Missouri!
I’m proud of where this company began, but I’m also looking forward to a bright future for KC Bobcat. This year, we’re focused on providing excellent customer service. We want to make sure that every customer who walks through our doors knows that they made the right choice. We want to help our customers as much as we can, and we want to continue to be an active part of this community. Together, we will keep working hard to operate our business with humility, grace, and honesty.”
How KC Bobcat’s Team Helps I-Solution’s Concrete Division Grow
“For a lot of us construction guys, it really boils down to relationships. For me, it’s so much easier to just call one person. It’s been a great partnership with KC Bobcat.”
David Maxon knows firsthand that loyal relationships make a huge difference in the construction industry. Before working for I-Solutions, David was in the construction industry for 27 years, starting as a field worker right out of high school and working his way up to a superintendent building data centers.
“I guess I took the long road,” he said. “I didn’t go to college. I just thought, you know, ‘I’ll go to work,’ and I worked my way up. I’ve been in the office about ten years now. I survive on my experience every day. That and my relationships.”
In 2023, he accepted the duty of starting the concrete division at I-Solutions, a company committed to helping build and improve Kansas City’s infrastructure.
“At the time, they didn’t do anything with concrete. It was kind of my vision, and KC Bobcat was one of the first relationships that I went to. I knew they could help me out. They’d always helped me out in the past, so I knew that, in the future, they’d be able to help us. From August 2023 on, we’ve done nothing but grow together with them.”
As I-Solution’s Director of Concrete Operations, David manages jobs in flatwork, site work, and structural concrete. “I handle any challenging things that come in,” he said. “Sometimes, I go to the field. But I don’t handle too much of the day-to-day field stuff anymore. My job is really forecasting what we’re going to do and what we’re going to need over the next three to five years.”
The concrete team has 43 field employees, two superintendents, eight foremen, two estimators, three project managers, and one project coordinator. “They have all worked for me or around me through the years, and they are an important part of my success,” he said.
Through it all, KC Bobcat Supply Sales Manager Ken Morgan has helped David keep everything running in the right direction.
“I really didn’t know Ken before my old sales rep. Ken picked up the phone, and he said, ‘Hey, I want to get with you on some stuff we have out on rent. I just want to talk to you about it.’ We went ahead and met each other, and I just told him, ‘I’m a relationship guy. If you do what you say you’re going to do, we won’t have any problems.’ He’s been a man of his word, and he’s come through with everything that we needed. It’s been great.”
Ken regularly helps David rent and purchase items like trowels, buggies, and other concrete products made by Multiquip. In particular, KC Bobcat’s RPO, or rent-to-purchase option, comes in handy for I-Solutions.
“We do a lot of rental purchase options at our company. We are a smaller business that’s growing, so it makes a big difference to stretch that cost out over time. It’s just a cash flow thing that we do. And Ken knows. He always sends me an RPO. The way that they navigate through that to help smaller businesses grow…honestly, I don’t know why I would buy from anyone else.”
KC Bobcat gets it. I don’t even listen to what anybody else has to offer.
David Maxon
Director of Concrete Operations, I-Solutions
For contractors who are considering a concrete equipment purchase, David suggests partnering with a KC Bobcat team member like Ken Morgan.
“When people are just getting started in the concrete industry, sometimes they don’t know the ins and outs of what they’re looking at,” he said. “I think sitting down with a knowledgeable staff like the one at KC Bobcat would give you the comfort level to make that purchase. Not only that, it allows you to build that relationship.”
We’ve been backing businesses like I-Solutions for 50 years, and we’re just getting started. Here’s to the next 50 and the stories still to come!
