Third generation running family business

Syd and Oliver Faulks.

Faulks Brothers is celebrating 70 years of serving the Waupaca area.

The company was founded in 1946 by brothers, Syd and Oliver Faulks, after they had completed their service in the armed forces during World War II.

Soon after that, their older brother, Lewellyn, joined Faulks Brothers after his release from a German POW Camp.

Syd and Oliver started the company when they were living in their mother’s garage in Weyauwega. Their mother, Elizabeth, helped them to obtain a loan so that they could acquire a well-used army troop transport truck and a few hand shovels.

In the early years, they would shovel the truck full of sand, drive it to the customer’s job site and hand shovel the load off the truck because there was no hoist on the truck to dump the load off.

The first office was in Syd and Ardys’ house in Weyauwega and the first gravel pit was east of Waupaca and opened in 1953.

Syd’s wife, Ardys, was the company’s first bookkeeper and remained in that capacity for over 30 years.

In 1960, Faulks Bros., with the support of the Waupaca Industrial Development Corporation, became one of the first businesses in the east side industrial park which is the current site of the company headquarters.

At this site in the 1960s and ‘70s Faulks Brothers was involved in the excavating, sand, gravel, limestone, trucking, asphalt and ready mixed concrete supply business.

Current partners Randy and Bob Faulks are the family’s second generation in the business. They joined the company in the 1970s.

Faulks Brothers began a major business expansion in the 1980s that allowed it to work on a national and international scale, producing aggregates, custom soil blending service and packaging lawn and garden products for retail markets.

In 1991 Faulks Brothers developed a greenfield start up sphagnum peat operation in northern Minnesota that at the time was the largest of its kind in the nation.

One of the company’s slogans “Faith, Family, then Freddie” (the company mascot) in that order, has served Faulks Brothers well.

The company appreciates its work force, many of whom have been with the company for more than 30 years. Dozens of employees have retired from the company with several decades of service.

Today, Faulks Brothers is focusing on its next 70 years. The third generation of the Faulks family is helping lead the company to new achieve new goals.

The company’s headquarters is currently undergoing a significant building expansion to allow the workforce to grow well into the future.