About us

IN AUGUST OF 1930, the Owen Bucket Company of Cleveland, Ohio hired our founder, Louis J. Arkin. Owen Bucket was a manufacturer of clamshell buckets and was having finance and distribution difficulties due to the Great Depression. Louis was first placed in their Chicago office to help out with inside sales, but was sent to the West Coast in 1931 to help with the ailing branch in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles store was moved to Oakland and then, soon after, to Berkeley, California, where it became the premier clamshell supplier to the West Coast market.

In 1965, Louis’s son Jim started work at what was then called Owen Bucket Company Ltd. The new company had been purchased from Owen Bucket Company and was now a distributorship solely owned by Louis. In 1971, Louis purchased our current building and shop in Richmond, California. In 1978, after much consolidation in the clamshell industry, Louis sold the business to Anvil Attachments. This is when we began adding product lines such as Rudomatic taglines and Aeroquip hydraulic hose.  It is also when our name changed to Bucket Mart of California. Jim became manager of the operation, and, in 1980, his son Jeff began working at the company.

In 1981, Jim repurchased the Richmond operation, setting in motion a good deal of changes and growth in the company. We added Vulcan pile hammers to our product mix and began working with electric vibratory hammers.  In 1986, to better represent our product lines, we changed our name to Bay Machinery Corporation. In 1988 we added Vulcan’s line of vibratory hammers to our rental fleet, and were introduced to Hydraulic Power Systems (HPSi) who were building powerpacks for Vulcan at the time. In May of 1991 we sold the very first HPSi vibratory hammer and we were officially in the shoring equipment business.

Today, we are proud to represent the finest manufacturers of crane attachments and foundation equipment in the world. Since 1991, we have partnered with several top equipment manufacturers in our industry. Most notably, Dawson Construction Plant of the United Kingdom for their innovative shoring and piling equipment (June 1998), Berminghammer of Toronto for their efficient and clean-running diesel pile hammers (March 2000), as well as Shanghai Peijun Industrial of China for their industry standard diesel pile hammers (September 2014).

Quality product lines do not, however, get the job done. Our employees make up the company and the customer service that goes along with it. Our shop foreman and master mechanic Alan Madison, who has extensive experience with heavy equipment, leads our shop of welders and mechanics. Our sales force calls on West Coast cities from Portland to Albuquerque, from Salt Lake to Honolulu and beyond. If you need foundation equipment we have the experience, the products, and the people to help. We look forward to working with you.