BATON ROUGE, LA In 2005, Cody Fortier started Cody Fortier Farms with a dump truck and a ton of ambition.

"We hauled dirt, limestone, whatever it took," said Fortier. "I purchased my first dozer not long after I turned 21, a new D5N from what was then Louisiana Machinery."

In 2010, Michael Hensgens bought into Fortier's company and Patriot Construction was created. Specializing in commercial and industrial civil construction, the company has grown to 60 employees and owns an equipment fleet of 35 Cat machines along with an additional 15 on rent.

"We believe Cat machines offer more production and a higher resale value, but most importantly we know Louisiana Cat will stand behind its product and it's customer," said Fortier. " We do almost everything through Louisiana Cat; we buy from them, we rent from them, they maintain our equipment, and we have service agreements where they monitor our equipment though GPS, which tracks oil changes and scheduled service on machines."

Currently Patriot Construction has 22 jobs in progress including six in Lake Charles, Louisiana, two in Texas, two in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the remaining in the Lafayette, Louisiana, area. The most recent completed job was Margaritaville, in Bossier City, Louisiana, which is a casino.

Patriot Construction recently completed the millennium port expansion located in New Iberia, Louisiana. Patriot moved 1.01 million yards in 91 days of hauling. For this expansion project, they needed specialized equipment and rented 10 Cat 740 off road dump trucks from Louisiana Rents, as well as a Cat 345 barge-unloading rig from Leblanc Marine.

"Growing up working for other companies, I quickly learned about the equipment I didn't want, it would be worn out after 2,000 hours," said Fortier. "That's why I turned to Louisiana Cat from day one, and why I am still a loyal customer nearly 10 years later."