Riggs Cat has proudly been serving customers in Arkansas for the past 90 years.
“We have been a caterpillar dealer in the state of Arkansas since 1927,” assistant branch manager Kevin Duvall said. “We are fourth generation owners with fifth generation employees.”
There are eight different Riggs Cat store locations in Arkansas with 400 employees statewide. The Russellville storefront, in operation for the past 20 years, has 15 employees and offers an assortment of products and services. “Here at our Russellville location we provide service on equipment, parts, sales and rentals,” Kevin said. “We rent smaller equipment to homeowners, heavy machinery to large contractors and just about anybody in between.
“There is a misconception that Caterpillar only makes the huge stuff like the bulldozers and that a normal person like us would never have a need for a CAT machine, but they do make small things,” marketing manager Megan Dunlap said. “People don’t know that we rent as well, so if you have a short-term project that you just need something for a day or a week versus having to buy it, we do offer that option.”
In the past few years Riggs Cat has expanded to include more retail equipment for customers housed under a new retail company name Riggs Outdoors. “Even though this is a new company, each location will have a Riggs Outdoor presence inside their store,” Brooke Langford, retail products marketing manager, said. “We want to make sure we can offer that product to all of our customers.”
Under Riggs Outdoors, they carry Spartan mowers and Intimidator UTVs as well as LS tractors. “We offer Pelican products, Guru Grills, and Bad Dawg accessories for the Intimidators,” Kevin said.
“Basically we are trying to bridge the gap,” Megan said. “We are known in the construction world for offering heavy equipment and parts service sales, but a lot of people don’t know that we have smaller equipment and so we are using the other retail products to get the word out that we do offer smaller products.”
Family is listed at the top of their list of company values. “Riggs is a great company to work for,” Brooke said. “Not only benefits, 401k retirement, but as an employee you feel very supported and taken care of, and that the company has your best interests at heart. It’s an overall family type feeling.”
Treating their employees like family also transcends to their customers. “We like to think that we are in a partnership with our customers,” Kevin said. “I think everyone has that same mentality throughout the company. We want to be a partner with our customers to help make them successful.”
Brooke added, “We’re not just going to sell somebody a product and send him or her out the door. We provide support after the sale.”
“I always tell people our customer service is based on solutions,” Megan said. “If you can present the problem then let us work with you to provide a solution for your problem. The company has been around for 90 years and a lot of the success has been from the way we treat our customers and then they tell their family and friends, like a snowball effect.”
When it comes to giving back to the community, Riggs Cat is all in. The construction equipment company saw a need to support their employees and local communities and established its own nonprofit called the Share It Forward Foundation. “Ninety-five percent of our employees voluntarily donate money from every single paycheck to the foundation,” Megan said. Kevin added that the company matches the donated amount dollar for dollar.
The funds are used for college scholarships that are awarded to the children, stepchildren and grand children of current and retired Riggs Cat employees. “We donated $70,000 in scholarships in 2017,” Megan said.
The Share it Forward Foundation also made it easier for the company to allocate funds to causes they care about like foster children in Arkansas. “Over $60,000 this last year alone went back into communities across Arkansas providing support to foster care organizations,” Megan said. “A lot of the kids get taken from their house with just the clothes on their back and so we filled over 500 backpacks with soap, shampoo, a stuffed animal, clothes and the like. These were donated to local DHS offices across the state.”
A portion of the foundation funds also goes back to employees that might be facing hard times. “If their house burned down and until their insurance kicks in, we will provide them with housing. Something that will help them get back on their feet,” Megan said. “So the money is going to great recipients.”
Riggs Cat has something for everybody. “We basically want to be a one-stop shop for work and play,” Megan said. “You come to us for your job needs and job solutions and then you can also come to us for recreation products as well.”
Riggs CAT
