When Weston Hutchings left his job at Sierra Nevada Construction in Reno in February 2009, he wasn't running from anything. He was running toward something: a chance to raise his family in the community where he grew up.
But the timing couldn't have been worse. The economy was collapsing. There was almost no work. And Hat Creek Construction, his cousin Perry's company, was on the verge of bankruptcy. Yet that desperate moment became the foundation for everything that followed.
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Weston brought something from the Reno market that Hat Creek needed: perspective on how bad things could get. When the 2008 recession hit Reno, it hit hard. Companies were bidding at negative margins just to keep workers employed. Weston had already seen the blood in the water. Hat Creek hadn't yet.
That year, 2009, became the company's biggest revenue year ($22 million) and worst financial year simultaneously. They were doing high-volume work with razor-thin margins. But their salvation came in an unexpected form: a massive wind farm project that required equipment and logistics no one had anticipated. If they hadn't won that job, the company likely wouldn't have survived.
The Paving Gamble
With newfound capital, Weston convinced Perry to pivot. They bought an asphalt plant, a business move that, on paper, looked crazy. They had no paving experience, no paving crew, and barely a hot plant operator. Their first Portola paving job was catastrophic. Three days into it, they lost $100,000. Weston remembers sitting in a hammock, staring at the sky, questioning whether they'd made a terrible mistake.
But they didn't quit. They recruited better talent, refined their systems, and with the Richmond Road project, everything clicked. Weston called Perry in tears: not from stress this time, but from finally seeing their vision work.
Building an Empire
What followed was deliberate expansion. They acquired the Susanville operation (Ward Lake), then strategically placed plants in Lookout and Eagle Peak to dominate northeastern California. Each move was calculated but aggressive.
Today, Hat Creek operates at ~$100M capacity with an elite operational team that takes retreats to the sand dunes, strategic planning retreats, and industry conferences. The company has core values (NSERT) identified by employees themselves, not handed down from leadership.
What truly distinguishes this story is the partnership model. Weston and Perry don't just work together: they challenge each other, support each other, and make the lonely decisions of leadership bearable. Both credit their wives for understanding the sacrifice required to build something meaningful.
“There was a time,” Perry reflected, “when we both felt like we were drowning. Now we have peace.”
That peace was earned through years of risk, resilience, and an unwavering commitment to building something that mattered.
and bring energy, experience and expertise to complete the simplest jobs efficiently, and overcome the largest obstacles with enthusiasm.
