Will Feland

Feland Builds Pinnacle Structures

Will Feland, a lawyer with 15 years’ experience, made what would seem to be a drastic career change in 1994 when he and five other businessmen started Pinnacle Structures Inc., a manufacturer of pre-engineered steel buildings.

But Feland points out that he actually had a lifelong goal to get into management.

“My attempt was to get into management; it just took me a while to get there,” says Feland, president of the Cabot business. “My undergraduate degree was a double major in accounting and business.”

Only two of those original founders are still with Pinnacle: Feland and Jimmy Bayles, who had been in the industry for 15 years and is vice president of operations.

The group initially bought the assets of a small Russellville company that had been in the industry. They moved the production and administrative offices of Pinnacle Structures to Cabot because that’s where they lived.

Feland chose to get involved in the pre-engineered steel building industry, he says, because two-thirds of the buildings in the country are pre-engineered steel.

It was hard at first to attract quality personnel.

“We started off in a double-wide trailer, and people don’t stand in line to go to work for you when you are in a double-wide and have no track record,” Feland says.

Convincing builders to buy Pinnacle’s product wasn’t easy, either. The first building they sold was a $10,000 structure for a local business.

“We lost $100 on it,” Feland says. “We went to Texas to get the material and drove all night from there.”

Pinnacle Structures is also a finalist in the Business of the Year category.

“I’m a lot more interested in any recognition that Pinnacle could get than Will would get,” he says. “The success of the company has been a team effort, people who have subordinated their egos to the success of the company. By no means has it been one person’s effort.”

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