Rock-solid Growth

The story goes that a group of guys from Missouri who sandblast boulders into signs were driving along U.S. 45 when they came across Boulder Designs, a Rantoul business that displays a number of its boulder signs along the highway, and they pulled over.

Where do you get those massive boulders for your signs, they asked, wondering about the nearest quarry.

Get them? "We make them," explained Eldean Bergman, owner of Boulder Designs and Border Magic. His companies, housed under the same roof in a complex just south of Rantoul, manufacture "solid, enhanced concrete." The results are small to huge boulder-like signs and landscape borders made to resemble brick or stone.

He�s been building the company since the 1990s, and despite the downturn in the economy in recent years, business, particularly the boulder side, has been "growing immensely," he said. In a down economy, businesses seem to want to stand out even more from their competition, he said, and one way they�ve done that is by putting up a big boulder-type sign instead of a traditional one.

He also recently landed a job for a famous customer: country music singer Loretta Lynn.

"I�m hoping she will talk to her friends" about the boulder he made for her, Bergman said.

Lynn and her staff did not seek out Bergman. He sought her.

While camping at her ranch in Tennessee, where there is horse camping, a museum and several shops, Bergman brought along a photo of what a boulder with her image would look like. After talking to a couple different people and insisting on making sure the right person saw the photo, Bergman landed the job of building a 5,000-pound boulder with Lynn�s likeness on it. And he promised to deliver it in time for Lynn�s celebration of her 50 years in show business.

"I�m sort of a persistent person," he said.

For years, Bergman ran a siding and installation business in Rantoul when he learned about a company that sold equipment that could create landscaping borders out of concrete. A fall from a tree stand while deer hunting injured his back, and he decided to sell his siding and installation business and create a new enterprise. He liked the idea of a product that could simulate bricks and stone but wasn�t crazy about the equipment provided by the company. He decided to go on his own.

"I knew a little about concrete, so I started reading more and more" and he came up with a new equipment design and formula (he declined to disclose specifics). Thus Border Magic was born and he started selling franchises around the country.

Later, knowing that a lot of the franchises work eight to nine months a year because of cold or inclement weather, he started thinking of ways the businesses could employ their crews throughout the year and on rainy days.

"It didn�t happen overnight," he said, but over a couple years he perfected the process, including making the steel stamps (in the shapes of letters, images like flags or flowers and words like "welcome").

The company started making address stones, memorials for pets and people, and signs big and small for people�s gardens, businesses, farms and more.

"We eventually shifted more to signage, which was a whole new ball game," he said. They designed boulders for park entrances, corporate headquarters like Monsanto, the WCIA television station and other places.

"We build the stone around the imprint area so you can give them perfect size, shape and color," he said. "Our saying is, ‘We turn your business into a landmark,�" he said.

There are now 70-some franchises across the country. The company headquarters in Rantoul employs nine people.

Recently Bergman has been working on perfecting boulder signs that have water features and boulders that double as planters so people can plant flowers or other plants in the memorial.

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