Evans Equipment: Selling Top-Quality Refurbished Work Equipment to Irrigation Districts
A Caterpillar D11T bulldozer sold by Evans Equipment to Kennewick Irrigation District.
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vans Equipment Inc. buys, refurbishes, and sells Caterpillars and other heavy work equipment, often disassembling the machines to the frame and completely rebuilding them. This allows the company to sell top-grade equipment at 50–60 percent of the cost of new machines. Evans’s customers include irrigation districts, and it is interested in working with more in the future. In this interview, Brad Evans tell us more about the history and current activities of his family’s business. Irrigation Leader: Please tell our readers about your background and the history of your company.
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Irrigation Leader: Do you focus exclusively on Caterpillar machinery? Brad Evans: Not exclusively, but that is the main type of equipment we work on. We work on other types, such as Hitachi and Komatsu, from time to time, but we have found that our potential customers are most interested in Caterpillar. Irrigation Leader: What was your father’s vision when he started the business? Brad Evans: When he worked for a Caterpillar dealer in Kansas City years ago as a territory salesman, my father quickly saw that the dealership’s philosophy was to focus on selling new. Whenever he was trying to sell used equipment, it was usually still in the same condition it had been in when it was traded in. Caterpillar dealers generally frowned upon the idea of investing a lot of money into the repairs necessary irrigationleadermagazine.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF EVANS EQUIPMENT.
Brad Evans: The business was founded as an independent dealer focused on buying and selling used equipment in 1965 by my father, Tom Evans, and a partner who had previously worked with him at a Caterpillar dealership. After they had built a solid foundation over many years in business, my brother Bryce Evans and I joined the company. Around the same time, the company was officially renamed Evans Equipment Inc., after the remaining partner was bought out. At our facility, we repair equipment that is not ready to be completely reconditioned or disassembled. However, when necessary, we also have the capability of disassembling
equipment to the bare frame, rebuilding all the components, and making it run like new. That’s been the cause of our success over the years.