Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 2, 1 February 2016 — Breaking new ground, recycling the old [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Breaking new ground, recycling the old

Mālama Loan increases Kalaka Nui's revenue 40 percent

ByTreenaShapiro Growing up, Nowel DudoitAlana never expected to work in eonstruction, let alone own her own business. "I wanted to be a secretary or something, with the fancy things, but I ended up doing trucking," says the president and owner of family-run Kalaka Nui, Ine. Trucking runs in the family, though, as DudoitAlana explains in a video interview: "My mom was the first truck driver in the

state of Hawai'i. She had her own trucking company. This compassion that she had, and the hard worker that she was, I think kind of rolls over to what we are today. We're strong women in business." Kalaka Nui, whieh means "the big truck," has grown considerably since its launeh in 1991. At first, the company was strictly a trucking company doing contract work with companies like Island ReadyMix and Ameron Hawaii. Mueh of the early work eame from building the "second city," Kapolei, where Kalaka Nui is headquartered today. A Mālama Loan from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs allowed the Native Hawaiian-owned company to diversify into recycling about 10 years ago. "It helped

us," Dudoit-Alana said. "I started with one truck. Today I have 20 trucks. I have two crushers, three excavators, three loaders." The seven-year loan was "absolutely perfect," she adds, noting that most banks would have wanted the loan repaid in five years. Obtaining the Mālama Loan wasn't mueh different than applying for any other loan, says Dudoit-Alana, although she says that the processing was a little faster. As with other business

loans, she needed to submit hnaneial statements and a business plan that explained how the money would be used. The loan helped Dudoit-Alana realize her vision of reusing concrete. She was able to purchase a mohile crusher, whieh she brings to job

sites along with a loader and an excavator. "With the recycling, I ean bring in material and resell it to other vendors, using my truck. So we were actually able to have a 40 percent gain by doing that," she says. Meanwhile, the companies Kalaka Nui works with are saving money because they don't have to send as mueh waste to the landfill, whieh charges tipping fees by the ton, and they also don't need to buy as mueh virgin material from the quarries.

Dudoit-Alana points out that this extends the life of both the landfill and the mountain. One of Kalaka Nui's jobs involved taking down 292 buildings at Joint Base Pearl HarborHiekam. "We recycled what could be recycled - the iron, the metal, the copper - and separated it, took the crusher

in there, took all the concrete, recycled it and had them reuse it again on the job site," Dudoit-Alana recalls. "I thought it was such a win-win situation for both the general contractor and myself, our company." Dudoit- Alana says she feels blessed by her eompany's success, and she wants to share what she's learned with other Native Hawaiian entrepreneurs. She counsels them on how to promote their busi-

nesses, how to turn to agencies like OHA and the Small Business Administration for support, and she offers other advice to help their companies get established. "I know that I'm being rewarded in many ways because it feels good to be able to give back to somebody who didn't know about the Mālama Loan," she says. "Learning how to do your business plan, that's really hard. But yet they have the idea, they have the creativity. They know how to do it. They just need help." Dudoit-Alana also enjoys helping women succeed in business, especially in the maledominated construction industry. Two of her 25 employees are women. "Actually, I had four but they got better opportunities. I think that's awesome because that means whatever they learned from here, they took

it to the next level," she says. "Giving them the tools to move ahead, that to me is awesome." Watch Nowel Dudoit Alana's interview on video at https://vimeo.com/147525344. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has helped more than 2,000 Native Hawaiian families with lowinterest loans to build businesses, repair homes, take care of educational expenses and consolidate debt. For more information on OHA's Mālama Loan Program visit www.oha.org/malamaloan. ■

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Over the past 25 years, trucking company Kalaka Nui has grown and diversified into recycling,- Photos: 0HA's Digital Media