R&O rises from ashes of homebuilder

In the 1970s, Opheikens was a residential builder and real-estate developer who had built Opheikens and Co. into a prosperous concern. But then the national economy soured, interest rates soared and the company was crippled.

Many of Opheikens' competitors folded or filed for bankruptcy. He took a different approach: switching gears completely, to focus on the commercial construction market.

For funding, Opheikens turned to his friend, Les Randall, and the two combined their resources to form Ogden-based R&O Construction, one of the region's leading commercial builders.

R&O's early days, headquartered in Opheikens' basement, included more than a few rough patches. Opheikens and partners Lynn Wright and Frank McDonough quickly learned that commercial construction was a brutally competitive field in which they bid on 20 jobs to land one. Opheikens once took a 100 percent pay cut to keep the company going.

But R&O's leaders persisted, and the company began prospering. Today, R&O is ranked 247th among the "Top 400" contractors in the country, with 225 employees, projects in 16 Western states and offices in Ogden and Las Vegas, with plans for an office in Phoenix.

R&O has prospered in part due to its creative approaches to various projects. Computers and digital cameras are a fixture on every site. The company also developed its own database for tracking subcontractors.

Recent comments

Add your comment