Construction Machinery Industrial: Equipping Alaska's industries.

• Author: Anderson, Tasha
• Position: TOP 49ERS SPECIAL SECTION / CMI

"Our number one priority is product support to the equipment that we sell and rent," says Construction Machinery Industrial (CMI) President and CEO Ken Gerondale.

"Product support includes providing parts; it also includes the service, whether it's the service for warranty or longer-term maintenance; and then product support can also include having a large enough inventory of equipment in the state of Alaska to provide rental equipment or standby equipment in case a piece of equipment goes down." Ultimately CMI strives to be available with the right tools, the right people, and the right parts, anytime and anywhere in the state. On the company's website there are phone numbers and email addresses listed for employees at each of CMI's four branches, along with this simple reassurance: "Branch numbers answered 24/7."

This commitment to product support is what Gerondale believes sets CMI apart. He says that most heavy equipment on the market, sold either by CMI or others in the industry, is of a good quality. The difference is how each dealer works with their customers and clients to make sure they get the most out of that equipment. "You hire good salesmen, and the salesmen will sell the equipment the first or second time--but when you're selling it the fifth, sixth, and seventh time, you're selling it because the support behind that equipment is what the customers are looking for."

Gerondale got his start in the industry running heavy equipment and ran and managed heavy equipment until he was about twenty-eight. "I was fully vested in the operating engineers union, and it was at that time I started selling equipment." In 1985 he founded CMI with two partners. Today it continues as a family company, with Gerondale as the majority owner and a few other individuals owning smaller shares.

"Since we're family owned and manage ourselves, we can make all of our decisions in Alaska," Gerondale says, meaning there's no waiting for decisions to come down the line from out-of-state ownership or out-of-state interests interfering with the decision-making process.

CMI carries Volvo construction equipment, Hitachi shovels and excavators, Epiroc underground drills and trucks and aboveground large drills, and Link-Belt cranes, along with various other smaller product lines.

The company provides services primarily to the oil and gas, mining, and construction industries, as well as local, state, and federal government. One contributing factor to the company's...