BLACKFOOT — Sometimes all it takes is an idea.

From a pickup truck and two employees to 400 employees and 400,000 square feet, Premier Technology is a story worth every square inch and has now been in business for 30 years.

It all started with Doug Sayer, who co-founded the company alongside his wife Shelly, hiring his two best friends and taking on customer requests. Sayer was customer-driven from day one and gave each customer 100 percent of his effort.

Those were not just words to Sayer. That was his attitude, his mentality and the pillars of his business. Those pillars have never faltered, from when the company had two employees to now, when it has more than 400.

The message remains the same.

“100 percent of our focus is on our employees,” Sayer said. “Our mission statement is to develop our people into the leaders of the industry, while providing our customers with the highest quality service. The day that we founded the company, I wrote those words, and we haven’t changed them.”

Sayer is never alone in his efforts. Together alongside Shelly they’ve turned Premier Technology into one of the biggest manufacturers in East Idaho, and into a family.

That family starts with his own snd extends beyond Shelly. He’s joined by his children, including his daughter, Christi Kotter, who has been part of the company from the beginning.

Kotter was 13 when the business got started, and she watched it grow throughout her high school years.

Family outings sometimes stretched into the early morning hours, spent in the shop working on financial records and hoping they could make the dream work.

The Sayers have grown the company while holding onto those same values from day one, including honoring their employees.

“Shelly and I are committed to continually recognize the employees, because without their work none of this would happen,” Sayer said.

Five-year employee David Phinney has felt that culture and bond, and says it shows in how the company treats its customers.

“We all work together and we pull our schedule left,” Phinney said. “We’re always done ahead of schedule. We don’t want to make our customers wait, and we definitely don’t want to give them bad news and tell them we’re behind schedule.”

Employees gathered on the company lawn at 858 W. Bridge St. in Blackfoot last week to celebrate its 30th anniversary with food, games, prizes and the kind of recognition the Sayers pride themselves on.

From new hires to employees who’ve been there 20-plus years, they are the engine of the company and play a vital role every day they come to work.

Employee Jose Castillo has been with the company for 28 years, since the very beginning, and is as happy today as he was all those years ago.

“I’m very happy with this company,” Castillo said. “I never have had a problem with them. I’m very happy with it, and I’m pretty sure when I start doing it again, I can come and do it again.”

What sets Premier Technology apart is that it plans not just for today, but for the future, and its most recent project shows that forward thinking in action.

While building a new 35,000-square-foot facility, the Sayers also found, all the way in Spain, machine equipment capable of holding 150 tons. The order is on its way and expected to arrive within the next few weeks, Sayer said.

The company will spend the month of September putting the machinery together. The new equipment won’t just change Premier Technology’s own manufacturing. It stands to change manufacturing across East Idaho, and it’s expected to add 45 to 50 new jobs to the company.

Rick Havelcheck, hired in April 2025 to help oversee the project, is excited about the company’s future and the work ahead.

“The amount of work and the jobs that they’re working on that side of the business is outgrowing the original facility,” Havelcheck said. “Adding additional employees allows us to have more jobs and cycle through, and have jobs work in more of a manufacturing process, a streamlined one.”

This kind of forward thinking isn’t new for Premier Technology. It’s part of why Sayer started the company back in 1996.

“What we’ve done is we’ve spent 30 years preparing our company for the future,” Sayer said. “I spend most of my time thinking 10 or 15 years in the future and trying to shape our company to be able to perform that.”

Sayer looked out over his employees in the yard, pushed up his sunglasses and reflected on the 30 years behind him, and the many more still to come.

“As I was driving here, thinking about celebrating 30 years, I reflected that I was wondering what the 150-year celebration is going to look like,” he said. “The company that we built is so strong and performed so well that, although I won’t be here for all of it, I’m excited for the future and the opportunity, and clearly we’re off to a good start.”

Premier Technology may be a company, but it’s also a family. And that family doesn’t just run the business. It brings people together and creates lifelong friends and memories along the way.

“A lot of the people sitting on this yard today are like my family,” Kotter said tearfully. “They’ve been a part of my life since I was a little kid. So in essence, I feel like instead of a family of five, we’re really like a family of 400. It has brought people into my life that are lifelong friends, and I’m forever grateful.”