Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Tresco Paving

Year started: 1973

Number of employees: 35

Annual volume: $14 to $15 million

Markets served: Asphalt paving, asphalt and concrete materials production

 By Tom Jackson

It was a teacher’s strike at the local college that forced Sonny Tresco to forgo pursuing a professional law enforcement degree and start looking for work. He borrowed his dad’s pickup truck, bought a ton of asphalt, tarped it with an old rug and started repairing potholes.

Nearly 40 years ago Sonny Tresco started out compacting asphalt with concrete blocks. His son Vincent works with him as project superintendent.

Compaction was primitive – Sonny used concrete blocks. As potholes progressed to driveways, Sonny secured a small equipment loan, his business began, and from there things kept growing. As a young man, Sonny would take his dad with him to bid jobs because he was frequently asked: “Just how old are you?”

But other people’s doubts were never an impediment. Sonny credits Ronald Reagan and the confidence he inspired in the country for helping small businesses like his own succeed. Sonny is an unapologetic optimist and patriot. “This is America, and there is no other country like it on earth,” he says. “Success is not easy here, you have to want it bad, you have to earn it. If you do it will come in time.”

Tar wars

In 1988 Sonny built his first asphalt plant to get more control over job scheduling. Local competition in this industry was fierce (hence the “Tar Wars,” logos on his trucks), but Sonny prevailed and now sells asphalt to some of his competitors in the paving business.

From left: Sonny, Diana and Vincent Tresco

The company’s reputation for service brought in so many customers that it added a second larger asphalt plant and a ready-mix concrete plant in the 1990s. Tresco uses two certified lab technicians to monitor the quality of state approved materials. This not only guarantees the optimum product for the Tresco paving crew, but is also the cornerstone of great relationships with other pavers. “Our customers are our friends,” Sonny says. “I’ve seen customers pass up other plants to get to us.”

Sonny’s son Vincent spent summers working for the company, and after earning an electrical engineering degree at Penn State, has returned to the business full time as project superintendent. Vince is not only NECEPT (Northeast Center of Excellence for Pavement Technology) certified in the field, but also certified in the lab. Quality and performance are paramount to their operations. One irrefutable proof of performance in the paving business is profilograph testing, which measures the roughness of the pavement surface. Installing the smoothest section of the Pennsylvania turnpike in 2010 earned Tresco Paving’s high – profile project the esteemed Golden Boot Award.

As a reminder of how competitive the asphalt business is Sonny puts a small “Tar Wars” emblem on his fleet of dump trucks.

Vince takes job performance seriously and anticipates problems on the job before they happen. Not only is there depth to the skills of the crew, but back up pieces of equipment are also onsite in case of a breakdown. Job preparation is an important element ensuring project success and timely completion.

Serious about safety

Diana Tresco, Sonny’s wife, is office manager and safety officer. Tresco’s vigorous safety program has delivered the benefits you would expect – lower insurance rates, healthier employees and reduced downtime. Perhaps even more important, Diana says, “It shows our employees how much we care. These people have been with us for a long time, they are our friends. They’re like family.”

Computers have their place but Tresco still likes to keep an eye on the big picture by posting all the jobs and their various stages of completion on a big white board.

Treating employees like family pays handsome dividends beyond safety. Instead of struggling against turnover and having to constantly monitor or train new employees, the Trescos have a stable core of loyal, experienced paving pros working for them with an average of 20+ years of service. Sonny gives employees a specially designed ring on their 25th anniversary. He has given out three rings so far and jokes that a lot of his guys would retire now except they’re staying on just to get the ring.

“You have to reward good employees,” Sonny says. “Where we come from, we understand. You have to have good pay and good benefits.” But Sonny’s philosophy is more than just being nice. Sonny commits to his employees and expects the same. “If you don’t have a guy’s heart, you have nothing,” he says. As a result, finding good employees has never been a problem for the company.

Decoy cars

Most of the work contracted by Tresco Paving is DOT or municipal related, which means keeping the crew safe from errant drivers and roadside hazards. Sonny has a good relationship with the local police, but staffing constraints do not always allow for a patrol car to deter speeding and unsafe drivers. Sonny’s solution was to purchase two used police cars painted to look official and fitted with amber lights instead of blue and park them on the side of the road near his crew. The police were delighted with the idea and support the presence of the “Tresco Safety Patrol Unit” on road projects to deter speeding drivers.

Sonny and Vince’s visibility on their construction sites is essential to their corporate success. When municipal officials, project engineers and inspectors see management on the project, they know Tresco Paving cares about the company’s performance and workmanship. The employees also know that management cares about them since both Sonny and Vince have spent many a hot day on the back of a paver and understand the physical demands of the job.

Home run on the Turnpike

The job that won the Golden Boot Award was the first Pennsylvania Turnpike job Tresco Paving had ever taken on. “In Western Pennsylvania, there are some large players, and Tresco is a smaller company, but they were the low bidder,” says Terry Dreher, a materials manager supervisor for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Authority. “I had never worked with them before, but from the first day, everything was open door. Everything they did was transparent. I was impressed.”

To deter speeding drivers around his crews, Tresco bought two used police cars and parks them at his worksites.

“The Golden Boot Award is pretty highly regarded,” Dreher says. “A lot of it is the ride quality, but the evaluations are also based on the performance of the materials from the plant, safety, completing the job on time and overruns on materials. They had experience on PennDot roads but our specs are a lot stricter and their plant performed beautifully.”

“He’s out there on the job working with them. I don’t know of any other presidents or CEOs who work with their men at 3 a.m. on a Sunday night, but Sonny will,” Dreher says.

First choice

Jim Rumbaugh, president of The Meritage Group, a Pittsburg – area builder and developer has been contracting Tresco to do paving almost from the beginning. “We have several choices in the Pittsburgh area and we continually go back to Tresco paving because of the quality of the work, the quality of the people and the timeliness of the jobs.”

Paving takes not only technical skills but people skills too, Rumbaugh says. “Sonny’s best quality is his even disposition. He’s hard not to like, and he’s very polite. He doesn’t yell and scream. He just keeps talking nicely and at the end of the day he usually gets people to agree to his way of doing things.”

Memories of the early years and the challenges they faced motivate Sonny and Vince Tresco to continue growing their business, even in a down economy. Vince’s enthusiasm is contagious in the company. “For the future, our hearts remain full and our doors remain open,” Vince says. “Excited about the direction our company is moving, we are pleased to announce the addition of our third asphalt plant, a new Gencor UltraPlant capable of producing 500 tons per hour, which will open this spring. Through diversification we plan to take the next step in our industry and elevate the business to a whole new level.” EW

To view a video of Sonny Tresco’s advice for contractors starting out, go to equipmentworld.com/digital or use your smartphone to scan the tag.

Don E. Kelly Contractor

Year started: 1973

Number of employees: 34

Annual volume: $5 million

Markets served: Buried telecommunications

Don Kelly

Norwood, Missouri

Unlike many contractors, Don Kelly didn’t have roots in the construction industry. His father was in politics and Don made a living building barb wire fences, mostly for farms. That changed in the early 1970s, when, every morning before work, Don would go to the same local gas station to fill up. There he would often run into John Long, a friend who performed installation and repair work for a local phone company. Telling Don he should be in telephone work, Long gave Don the name of a general contractor in nearby Tipton, Missouri.

Don thought about it, and then called Jerry Hartman of LP&H Construction. “He asked me how much experience I had, and about my equipment. I told him I didn’t have any experience and I didn’t have any equipment, and he said, ‘Well, then why did you call me?’

“We could have gone with a lot of other contractors on this project, but if there’s somebody out there that’s better, we don’t know about them.”

Don convinced Hartman to meet him the following Saturday morning and came away with a $12,800 contract for aerial work in Lewisburg, Kansas. Don liked the idea of traveling, and a few days later, he and his fence building crew were climbing poles.

Bruce Vestal, left, a supervisor with Steelville Telephone, with John Kelly at a jobsite in the Steelville area.

Today, Don’s company handles strictly buried telecommunications, discontinuing aerial work in the late 1980s. Working primarily for telephone companies in Missouri and the surrounding states, Don’s crews handle everything from small routine placement to large scale exchange rebuilds.

A true family business

Although Don’s business didn’t begin as a family affair, it’s definitely one now. His office and shop are next to his home and farm. His wife Jan helps with payroll and human resources, and seven of the nine Kelly children work for the firm. Bridget works with her mother in payroll and HR, and Carrie works part time in the office. Twins John and Housten (“Hoot”) work on a variety of tasks. John handles the office and crew assignments, as well as spearheading the company’s safety program, while Hoot is generally in the field. Clayton lives and works out of the Lebanon, Missouri, office. Austin and Mikee are still in school, so Austin helps take care of the cattle on the family farm, while Mikee is the chief babysitter of the 20 – and counting – grandchildren.

The company’s family feel extends to the employees – more than one father/son duo has worked for the firm, as well as brothers Norman and Lloyd Borders. Norman, an operator who has worked for Kelly since the company’s aerial work days, also brought his daughter Brandy on board. Lloyd has been with the company for 14 years.

Don treats his employees like family, says shop superintendent David Turner. An example of Don’s commitment to his crews came during work on a long-term project in Granby, Missouri, a four-hour round trip from Norwood. “He found out they didn’t like staying in a hotel,” Turner says. “So he bought a five-bedroom house in Granby and he lets the employees stay in it.” Since Don didn’t reduce their per diem allowance after purchasing the home, the employees are able to cook their own meals if they wish, saving the expense of eating out and pocketing the difference.

Kevin Johnson, general manager with Granby Telephone, says he’s impressed with Don’s concern for his workers. “We could have gone with a lot of other contractors on this project, but if there’s somebody out there that’s better, we don’t know about them.”

Ups and downs

Don was fortunate to procure some lengthy contracts early, ensuring his business got off to a good start. He would often finish a job ahead of schedule, leaving a good impression with his clients. The 1970s were a boom time for the company, which handled a 600-mile removal project in Missouri and a three-and-a-half-year project for the state of Arkansas. He hired nearly 30 employees and bought new equipment, not knowing a deep recession was around the corner.

By the early 1980s, the effects of the recession were hitting Kelly hard. Don had to lay off all but five employees, and sold half of his equipment to pay for the other half. “We turned the shop into a convenience store and lived upstairs,” he said.

Kelly’s crews laying fiber optic cable.

In 1989, an associate was trying to get Don into the underground business. Although he’d been resistant to it before, Don decided to give it a try. “We’ve been busy ever since then,” he says. “We just started getting more contracts.” Since he no longer handles aerial work, he encouraged several of his employees to start their own business, and now they are successful in that market.

Don says the current recession hasn’t had much of an impact on his business. “This year has been good,” he says.

Planned success

Another calling -- Musicians since childhood, four of the Kelly children perform as a bluegrass gospel group. With Hoot on guitar, John playing banjo, Bridget on the fiddle and Clayton on the mandolin, The Kellys perform at churches and other events throughout the Ozarks. The group also plays regularly at Silver Dollar City, an attraction in Branson, Missouri, and has produced four CDs.

Don has a simple path he follows: Work hard, do a good job, be honest and give credit to God. He believes being a good steward of his responsibilities has made him successful, and most of his associates agree. Johnny Darrah, president of Darrah Contractors, has worked with Kelly on fiber optic projects, and says Don gives every part of the job the attention it deserves. “He has people-pleasing people,” he says. “He also knows that customers want attention, and he gives it to them.”

In addition, Darrah says, “his stuff always looks new,” he says. Shop Superintendent David Turner, responsible for the 130-plus piece fleet, says Don replaces the equipment as needed – particularly their high wear items such as plows and rock saws. “Part of our strategy to reduce downtime is to have spares,” Turner says. “We strive to have equipment ready to go.” Don also bought a fleet of Chevrolet trucks this year.

John has a similar strategy in place with respect to the company’s safety program. He has implemented a 52-week program for crew leaders, supplemented by monthly company-wide meetings. He sees the company’s limited turnover as an advantage. “We have the same crews on a long-term basis, which facilitates open communication.”

Focus on the future

Don has a succession plan that involves the children and there will be a place for them if they continue working in the family business.

Don has dedicated employees, a fleet of new and well-maintained equipment and satisfied clients throughout the state. Even though the children could be handed the reins today, he has no plans to retire any time soon. “I can’t see myself doing anything else,” he says. EW

To view a video of Don Kelly’s advice for contractors starting out, go to equipmentworld.com/digital or use your smartphone to scan the tag.

Willmar, Minnesota

It will take more than snow and the recession to slow these contractors down.

Quam Construction

Year started: 1956

Number of employees: 44

Annual volume: $14 million

Markets served: Sewer, water, excavation, snow removal and demolition

When natural disasters force everyone else indoors, Terry and David Quam gear up and head out to repair pipes, remove snow, demolish buildings and diminish the effects of Mother Nature.

David (left) and Terry Quam

“When emergency work comes around, we’re ready for it,” Terry says. “We can’t hope for it, but we’re there when it happens.”

Their quick and dependable response has helped them continue the 55-year-old, family-owned Quam Construction during the struggling economy.

Keeping it in the family

With a population of a little more than 18,000, Willmar, Minnesota, has been home to Terry and David most of their lives.

Their father, John, started the company in 1956 with just a trailer and a truck, driving from job to job, and their mom, Irene, helped manage the books. John and Irene’s first two projects were in Iowa, but they eventually set up shop in Willmar in the early 1960s.

“The construction industry was in my blood.”

David wasted no time getting in the business and started working for his father when he was 15 years old, operating different pieces of equipment and learning the bidding and estimating processes.

One mechanic maintains the company’s 78-piece fleet.

Terry, on the other hand, went off to college to study psychology. But when he began visiting jobsites with his family back at home, he discovered “the construction industry was in my blood. Seeing the jobsites thrilled me.”

After years of training his sons, John, now 79, officially handed down the business to Terry and David in 1996 – but he still comes by occasionally to check on things. Terry, 45, manages the hiring and banking, and David, 56, deals with the estimating and bidding processes.

“We play off of each other’s strengths and complement each other well,” David says.

The Quam’s sanitary sewer and water main replacement project in Granite Falls, Minnesota, is the largest underground project to date in the city, reports the West Central Tribune.

With no children interested in taking over the family business, Terry and David hope to find an employee who wants to continue their work after they retire. “We know our day is coming,” Terry says.

Weathering the storm

Because of their northern location, the Quams’ work season, except for snow removal, is limited to April through about Thanksgiving. “We cross our fingers each year and hope the freeze doesn’t come earlier than the previous year,” Terry says.

During the winter, they focus on paper work and ideas for growing the business in the coming year. When the ground starts to unfreeze and dry up, they hire about eight additional temporary workers – bringing their staff to 44 – to help with the flood of new projects, which include excavating, sewer, water, demolition and snow removal work.

Expanding to survive

When their father established the business in Willmar, he mainly focused on local jobs. Since then, the sons have expanded their project radius to include four states: North and South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota. Iowa has especially proved to be a good state for steady jobs during the recession.

The Quam Construction resume includes demolition.

“We had to expand our locations to survive,” says Scott Olson, estimator and project manager. “It’s been hard to bid closer to home. We are trying to sustain, instead of grow.”

The Quams also buy equipment and work-related supplies in those states, helping them to become a part of each community: “If we work in Iowa, for example, we should do business in Iowa,” David says.

Cutting downtime, costs

They buy all of their equipment, which includes crawler dozers, generator sets, wheel loaders, excavators, skid steers, backhoes and drum vibratory compactors. “When you own a piece of equipment, you can afford to let it sit there when you aren’t using it,” Terry says. “It also gives you the pride of ownership.”

To get the most from their equipment and cut back on downtime, they keep their equipment up-to-date. “If it gets up in hours, it can cause downtime,” Olson says. “And if we aren’t putting pipe in the ground, we aren’t making money.”

Employees

Their fleet is not the brothers only concern. “We try to create a fun, enjoyable workplace so employees like what they do,” Terry says. “Contractors need to maintain good pay and benefits through good economic times and bad so employees know they can count on their employer. In return, we’ll have loyal employees.”

“Keep your nose to the grind stone. Even during bad times, there are opportunities to work.”

Clients have noticed this employee care. “They’ve had a lot of people with them for a long time – so they must take care of people – or else they wouldn’t stay,” says client Roger Fenstad with civil engineer and consultant Moore Engineering, West Fargo, North Dakota. “Terry and David Quam are just wonderful people to deal with. I speak highly of them because they earned their reputation.”

The Quams’ work ethic has also grabbed the attention of others in the industry. “We consider it certainly a feather in our cap to have them as clients. The Quams are tremendous leaders – the way they work with people, vendors, creditors and customers,” says Josh Loftis, with Cobb Strecker Dunphy & Zimmermann, a construction insurance and surety agency. “They are extremely responsive, good to work with and take a lot of pride in what they do.”

Looking to the future

The brothers attribute their success to its almost-all Caterpillar fleet, hard work, determination, employees and strong emphasis on safety. But, they aren’t content with staying where they are today. “We want to continue to learn,” Terry says. “Learning is a lifelong experience, and we don’t ever want to become complacent.”

Their advice for other contractors boils down to one word: persistence. “Keep your nose to the grind stone,” Terry says. “Even during bad times, there are opportunities to work.”

Tips for survival

Go to www.equipmentworld.com/digital or use your smartphone to scan this tag to view a video of some of Terry and David Quam’s views on survival and success. (Download a free app from

http://www.gettag.mobi and point your phone at the square to scan the tag.)

Brecksville, Ohio

Leading his team onto the field of play is Ohio contractor’s true calling

Sports Construction Group

Number of employees: 50

Annual volume: $14-15 million

Markets served: Athletic field site prep, installation and maintenance.

By Mike Anderson

As a sports dad, Paul Franks always watched with immense pride when his boys Chris and Scott took to the field. As a contractor, he has a similar feeling when he flips on the TV.

With helmets from their favorite teams – and favorite construction partners – in the background, Sports Construction Group president and CEO Paul Franks, right, hands the ball off to a trio of teammates, executive vice president George Pfeffer, vice president Julie Cipolla and controller Kelly Kost.

“Two years ago, every single inning in the World Series was played on one of our fields. That’s pretty cool,” Franks says.

SCG “gives it our utmost whether it’s a high school or if it’s a pro field to produce a good finished product that they’re going to be proud of and that’s going to do a good job for them,” says chief operating officer Al Ewing. Synthetic Trophy Turf was installed at Hopewell High School in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, home of the Tony Dorsett Stadium.

Franks has piloted a family legacy in heavy highway construction into a niche business focused on site prep, installation and maintenance for athletic fields. The facilities his Sports Construction Group (SCG) crews have worked would populate any sports junkie’s proverbial bucket list of places to visit: Yankee Stadium, both old and new; side-by-side football and baseball stadiums in Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Franks’ hometown of Cleveland; baseball parks in Philadelphia and Queens; and football stadiums in Nashville and the University of Notre Dame. Having his team overcome each high-profile job’s assorted challenges brings a smile to Franks’ face every time he settles in front of the screen and sees a smooth play made on a familiar field. He’s just as proud, however, of the various minor pro, small college and high school baseball, football, field hockey, track, soccer and lacrosse facilities his company has built across the country.

Sports Construction Group has leveraged its heritage in heavy highway construction into the niche sports field site prep and installation business. Here, one of SCG’s Caterpillar D5G LGP crawler dozers takes to the field at Yankee Stadium.

One such field – located only about a mile away from the SCG office in the historic Cleveland-area community of Brecksville, Ohio – has particular significance. When the company consolidated its operations in Brecksville, SCG partnered with the city to build a synthetic soccer and lacrosse field at the Blossom Hill recreational area. The field now serves as both a community facility and a company marketing tool.

Heavy roots

Learning the ropes from the bottom up, Franks joined his father’s heavy highway construction firm, S.W. Franks Construction, as a laborer and machine operator, eventually becoming a partner. In the early ‘90s, the company won the job for Cleveland’s new baseball park, then called Jacobs Field. Franks then realized he was drawn to the sporting sector, which he found to be more personal than the “very tough” world of heavy highway.

In preparation for the stadium job, Franks traveled to Durham, North Carolina, to see a minor pro field being built. He couldn’t believe what he saw. “It just wasn’t efficient,” he recalls of the small agricultural tractors used. The company’s heavy highway background then came in handy – S.W. Franks had been an early adopter of laser technology, and now Trimble’s Spectra Precision technology helps guide SCG’s Caterpillar earthmoving and Vermeer trenching equipment.

So SCG’s crew tackled the Jacobs Field job with a Caterpillar 325 excavator, a pair of D6 crawler dozers and a fleet of trucks, moving 20,000 tons of material through a stadium door. “We just got at it,” says Franks. “It looks like it’s a real big space when you’re in the bleachers, but when you’re down on the field, it’s not.” The work impressed the Jacobs Field architect HOK, leading to an ongoing relationship, and SCG’s crews began to do athletic facility projects throughout the country.

SCG uses a basic eight-man crew that does everything, from pouring concrete installing irrigation, stone and pipe, to laying the turf. “These guys get it,” Franks says. “It’s not their first rodeo.”

Team first

Visitors to the SCG office are welcomed in a foyer that resembles a high-end sport fan’s hobby room, decked out with memorabilia that includes polished locker room stalls.

Al Ewing, chief operating officer, oversees all civil construction and deals directly with job superintendents and their crews; George Pfeffer, executive vice president, directs estimating and job management, working closely with Julie Cipolla, vice president and Matt Rinas, senior project, manager/estimator.

Pfeffer and Ewing say it all begins with Franks. “He never treats us as if we’re not anything but like partners,” says Pfeffer. “It’s just a great dynamic that he’s set up here. If we have problems, we work through it.”

With all company leaders at the table knowing what’s going on with all facets of projects, “we learn from our mistakes,” explains Ewing. “If somebody has a problem, we hash it out. “We’re all good friends besides being co-workers.”

Sums up Franks: “Never feel like if you make a mistake you have to hide from it. You’ve got to be open, collectively find a way to solve it and move forward.”

Hanging tough

During the past few years, contractors have faced more than their fair share of business challenges. SCG has been no different. “There was a huge drop in the collegiate and high school level,” says Franks. “But I feel we’re coming out of it now.” As a positive indicator, SCG had its busiest bidding season ever.

“Coming out of a tough recession is the one time when everybody’s got the opportunity to take it to another level,” says Franks, who acquired the 6-acre facility in Brecksville with an eye to expanding into manufacturing of a yet-undetermined turf product.

“If you run your business believing in yourself and with the confidence of having gone through things before, you’re going to get through it,” Franks says. “Tough times just make you a little bit better the next time around. We certainly learned how to dial things back, prioritize and focus on what’s going to take us to the next step.”

Tough times? How about having your parent company go belly-up? S.W. Franks was sold in 1998, but Paul and his team remained on board and kept the division profitable. Still, the parent company went bankrupt.

“The day that happened, I went to the team and said, ‘I’m going to just start right back up. You guys are more than welcome to come on board.’ We basically started back up the next day.” SCG was formally born, and the new company immediately completed the Philadelphia Phillies stadium job its crew had already started.

For those starting into construction, Franks’ advice focuses on humility. “Go slow, think smart and don’t have an ego.” Thinking you have to be bigger than and own more than the next guy is a recipe for failure,” he says. “When you’re managing something that is risky, one bad move can cost you a lot, so never feel invincible. You might be able to get through some really difficult things, but just because you did it doesn’t mean you always will. So, step lightly.

“It’s like a sports team,” he says. “The success comes from everybody working together.”

PRODUCTION SOD LAYING

Installing athletic fields sometimes requires a more delicate touch than a crawler dozer or excavator can deliver.

This led SCG’s crew to modify a compact wheel loader for production sod laying. Replacing the front loader linkage with a large sod roller and putting on large tires that are kinder to turf, SCG created a machine that doesn’t displace any of the subgrade it’s running on. Paul Franks credits “our guys collectively” for coming up with the idea as an alternative to a slower tow-behind roller.

“When you’re on sand and you’re laying sod, the loader doesn’t displace the sand, and it can roll right on top of the sod without squishing it down,” Franks explains.

Go to www.equipmentworld.com/digital or use your smartphone to scan this tag to view a video of what advice Franks would give to contractors just starting out. (Download a free app from http://gettag.mobi and point your phone at the square to scan the tag.)

Mooresville, North Carolina

When two friends joined forces, they took a second- generation pipeline firm to the next level.

By Tom Jackson

G. Campbell Construction

Year started: 1993

Number of employees: 50 +

Annual volume: $5 to $7 million

Markets served: Natural gas pipeline installation – distribution and transmission, horizontal directional drilling, pipeline station construction, integrity pipeline work, road boring and creek and river crossings.

In the early 1960’s Grady Campbell got out of the Marines and started working in construction. His son G.C. rode along with him on jobs as early as age seven, and by the time he was 15, G.C. was working with his dad in the summer and every school break.

G.C. Campbell (left) and Greg Goodman

Then in 1993, Grady started his own company along with his son, primarily doing gas pipeline work. The father-son team happened to hit it at a very good time as the Charlotte, North Carolina, region was just beginning to boom.

Today the company has expanded and diversified its offerings to include everything from running a gas line to houses to mainline transmission lines, regulator stations, integrity work, irrigation and water lines and anything in between. It also performs horizontal directional drilling and can do driveway shots or 1,000-foot bores through dirt or hard rock, and creek and river crossings.

Delegate and grow

About three and a half years ago, his dad retired completely and G.C. found himself overwhelmed with the details of running the company by himself. “I’d lay in bed at night thinking about all the things that didn’t get done that day,” G.C. says.

As chance would have it, G.C. had a friend from childhood, Greg Goodman, who was a partner in the business and ran a crew in the field. When G.C. offered him the job of business manager, he was eager to make the switch. Greg had been looking for a bigger challenge and thinking along the same lines himself.

The complexities of gas pipeline work require highly skilled operators and rigorous safety standards.

“The way G.C. put it to me was there needed to be more than one person who knew how to do what he knew how to do,” Greg says. And that meant being able to talk to the major clients like the big gas companies on a professional level, overseeing the back end of the business such as payroll, job costing and bid work and the basic day-to-day logistics.

Having 10 years in the field, Greg had mastered the technical requirements of the job. The new managerial responsibilities were a different challenge. “It’s a different kind of stress and a different set of responsibilities,” he says. “I realized quickly that I had to think more about the big picture. You have to make sure the company is making money. You try to keep everybody working when times are tough. You think about the responsibilities you have to the families of the people who work for you.”

“Bringing on Greg made perfect sense,” G.C. says. “As part owner he was going to be more involved than somebody who didn’t have a stake in the overall business.” He also had good relationships with everybody in the company from the laborers on up. “They all knew him and that made the transition easier than bringing in somebody from the outside,” G.C. says.

Safety first

All the regional gas companies require a high level of skill from operators and top notch safety programs. Foremen and operators are certified according to the federal pipeline regulations and operators have to pass a written test and be qualified on an excavator simulator before they’re allowed to work on a gas company project. The gas companies also require re-qualifications every few years just to make sure everybody stays sharp.

Gas pipeline work has been a mainstay of the company’s business since the beginning.

Drug and alcohol pre-screening is used for all job applicants, and random drug and alcohol testing is also used for established employees. The company is a member of the National Safety Council and the North Carolina Safety Council, and is involved with the state One-Call association.

G.C. believes in accountability for all his employees. They have bi-weekly safety meetings for the crews and a safety reminder goes out in each paycheck twice a month. Training and operator qualifications are spelled out in the employee handbook. If something is done wrong the employee is given a verbal warning. And it rarely goes beyond that. “We don’t have to do that very often,” G.C. says. “We want everybody to go home at night.”

G. Campbell Construction diversified into HDD operations and can handle everything from driveway shots to river crossings.

G.C. and Greg also frequent the jobsites to make sure the operators and supervisors are following the letter of the law. “I don’t want anybody to do anything I wouldn’t do myself,” G.C. says. One of the results of this integration of safety and operations is an experience mod rate around 0.85. “Our insurance company is extremely pleased and it really helps us when it’s renewal time,” G.C. says.

Finding and keeping operators

Operators with good machine skills, accountability and the presence of mind to work safely day in and day out on these jobsites aren’t easy to come by, G.C. says. When they put ads in the paper they often wind up interviewing people who aren’t qualified. The job entails a lot more than just running a machine. So when he is evaluating potential employees, experience isn’t the most important attribute, G.C. says. If he finds somebody with a good work ethic, he’ll take the time to train them.

Once they do get a good operator, they strive to provide him with a family atmosphere and as a result have had a fairly stable crew of 50 to 60 employees over the last few years. “Keeping people happy is a big part of my job,” G.C. says. “I have to listen to my guys, and sometimes help them resolve issues. But I’ve known some of these guys for years and I know their kids. People aren’t just numbers to us. I care about these guys. And if I can help them get their issues resolved, they’re going to be better employees for it.”

Customer satisfaction

G.C.’s and Greg’s long experience in underground construction and ability to field highly experienced crews has won them plaudits from customers.

“We used to have to call contractors from all the way down in Texas, but G. Campbell does it all for us now,” says Seth Rogers, operations superintendent, Lancaster County Natural Gas. “They have good guys working for them. They do perfect cleanups and they don’t have equipment downtime. They’re a real good group compared to the other ones I’ve had.”

“I’m very pleased with their work, and we’re very selective about who we allow to work with us,” says Terry Adams, York County Natural Gas. “ We’re really impressed with their foreman in South Carolina, Mike Yarborough. He’s been fantastic on the more challenging jobs and tremendous on safety. Several times he’s helped us catch things that could have been a problem.”

“I’ve been fortunate to have done business with them for the last 15 years,” says Dino Beck, who has sold the company numerous directional drilling machines, piercing tools and other specialized underground machines. “You can still shake their hand and consider it their bond. I consider him a good friend as well as a good customer. He’s been blessed to have most of the same crew leaders for the last 8 to 10 years and he can run any piece of equipment on the job. He knows what’s going on and nobody pulls the wool over his eyes.”

Surviving the recession

The split management role created when G.C. brought Greg into the business side of the company has served them well in the current recession. “In the 90s and early 2000s it was all about how much we can get done,” Greg says. “Today its more about how well we managing what we’ve doing. We’ve had to make some tough choices and scale back some of our long range planning as far as equipment goes. And it’s hard to think about expanding, but things look better now than they did last year.”

G.C. adds that they got lucky with a major job from a big customer, but luck more often than not, favors those who are prepared. “You have to be involved in every aspect of the company,” he says. “You can’t just put people out there and not keep up with them. You have to be involved completely.”

Grand Prairie, Texas

These safety-minded contractors dug into a new market to survive the recession.

By Lauren Heartsill Dowdle

The Holbrook Company

Year started: 2000

Number of employees: 105

Annual volume: $14 million

Markets served: Demolition, excavation, drainage, soil remediation, clearing, lime stabilization and grade work

Coach, contractor, father, husband and mentor are all hats John Holbrook wears well on any given day. But one he refuses to put on is that of a worrier. “Worry is the lack of faith that God will take care of your problems,” he says. His refusal to give up in this struggling industry pushed the company into a fairly untouched, profitable market that helped them survive.

Keeping it in the family

A summertime job turned into a contracting career for John, who worked as a project superintendent, vice president and treasurer for other construction companies before starting The Holbrook Company in 2000. When his previous employer sold their company, Grapevine Excavation, John felt prepared to start his own, bringing 45 of the 66 Grapevine employees with him.

Sherri and John Holbrook, right, plan to hand down the business to their son, Stephen.

His company now has 105 employees, including a 17-member office staff who are all family or have been coached by John in soccer – something he does before and after hours. His wife Sherri, who started in the construction industry after marrying John 27 years ago, handles the logistics by entering bills, certifying payrolls and “making sure the employees are happy.”

Their son Stephen makes schedules, visits jobsites and learns the ins and outs of the business so he can one day take over. “I love this industry,” Stephen says. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. I’m trying to make a name for myself being the boss’ son.” With his desk next to his father’s, he’s constantly mentored in industry practices.

Dirty work

When the economic downturn hit the Dallas-Fort Worth area in 2008, the Holbrooks began offering soil remediation services, which they already had the equipment and skills to do.

John says there’s little competition for soil remediation jobs, which involve excavating and transporting contaminated soil from jobsites to government-approved landfills. “It’s a great market to expand into. Soil remediation is almost identical to what we were already doing, just with more paperwork,” he says. The company removes soil containing high levels of contaminants such as lead, arsenic, petroleum, hydro-carbons and mercury.

John and Stephen regularly check on their sites’ progress, like this one at St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in Euless, Texas.

Although soil remediation is one focus, the Holbrooks have not let their other services – demolition, excavation, grade work, drainage, lime stabilization and clearing – fall behind. They have seen a shift in where they are getting the jobs, however. Before, their volume was about equally divided between public and private projects. Now, 80 percent of their jobs are public. “We’ll take what jobs we can get,” John says. “The private market will come back.”

The Holbrooks have large repeat customers such as Turner Construction, Andres Construction and Medco Construction, which represent a combined $25 million of past work for them. “Having a customer service-oriented business is a huge piece of the puzzle for keeping customers,” John says. “Our goal is always to make a new customer a repeat customer.”

Rewarding practices

Another factor in keeping repeat customers is maintaining sound safety practices. “Large companies will go with the safer contractor, even if the bid is higher,” he says. John stresses safety by hosting weekly meetings, where he uses materials in both Spanish and English, and encourages employee feedback. “Safety is a huge part of our success,” John says. “Even in tough times, we haven’t had trouble with safety. We’ve proven safety doesn’t cost – it pays.”

The Baylor Health Care System is one of the Holbrook’s repeat customers.

And employees have seen these payments firsthand. They receive up to four $500 bonuses a year if they do not accumulate safety penalties, with their peers deciding the penalty severity and fine amount. “Wearing safety vests with their names on them, hard hats and protective glasses has become a way of life for our employees,” John says.

If there is an accident, everyone comes together to analyze what went wrong and how they can prevent it in the future. Employees must also go through background checks and nine drug tests a year, which further cuts down on safety issues and maintains their 0.71 experience modification rate.

Keep employees happy

Although safety comes first, employee happiness is a close second. Since the Holbrooks have been unable to give raises during the recession, they look for other ways to boost employee morale. Sherri takes money out of her personal bank account to give employees presents and small bonuses on Thanksgiving, Christmas and birthdays. “We’re all a big family,” Sherri says. “I want the employees to know they’re appreciated and important. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be here.”

The Holbrooks demolished an existing structure, excavated, graded and stabilized lime for a 120-animal facility at Carrollton Animal Services.

Gary Walters, Holbrook’s chief estimator and Sherri’s brother, has worked for John for 14 years and says the work environment is one of a kind. “John took me under his wing and has been a good mentor,” Walters says. “I’ve never been in a job like this before where I enjoy coming to work. I will go for months without talking a day off. I want to work for us to survive.”

Profitable equipment

This love for their job can also be tied to the sense of ownership employees have for the equipment. John assigns each operator a machine, making them accountable for its upkeep. “The more time you can keep one guy on one machine, the more profitable it will be,” John says. “The operator will want to take care of his machine and have more pride in it.”

The company stopped renting equipment in 2008 and now only buys. John says the equipment is an important investment and tries to keep each piece as long as possible. Their fleet includes excavators, motor graders, articulated dump trucks, compact track loaders, box blades, backhoes, mixers and compactors.

The Holbrooks’ equipment efforts are not going unnoticed. Jerry Crawford, vice president of Turner Construction, has worked with the Holbrooks for about six years. “We usually have them on two or three projects at a time, and you can always tell their equipment from the other contractors because it looks so good,” Crawford says.

The Holbrooks never have equipment-related downtime, says Chris Sinkey, owner of J&H Truck Service. “We’re one of the larger truck companies in Dallas, and we deal with a lot of companies,” Sinkey says. “Hands down, they’re the best. The way John runs his business is the reason guys last in this business.”

And John intends to last, with his determination to succeed showing no signs of stopping. “You can do more than you think you can,” he says. “Always dream bigger.”

Tips for survival

Go to www.equipmentworld.com/digital or use your smartphone to scan this tag to view a video of some of John Holbrook’s views on survival and success. (Download a free app from http://www.gettag.mobi and point your phone at the square to scan the tag.)

Johnson City, Tennessee

This agile firm keeps a sharp eye on trends that can impact tomorrow’s jobs

By Marcia Gruver Doyle

When Tommy Burleson calls his firm “a typical after-the-war construction startup,” he means World War II, underlining just how long his third-generation firm has been around. But don’t think longevity translates into relying on tradition. The 60-year-old Burleson has a keen eye on national trends, especially ones that can translate into local business opportunities.

Take, for instance, his company’s present position as owner’s representative for Johnson City, Tennessee. Burleson credits his involvement with the Associated General Contractors of America – he’s served in several leadership positions at the national level and has been president of the Tennessee branch – with his exposure to the owner’s representative concept.

“One of our strong points has always been our ability to manage jobs,” Burleson says. When Johnson City announced it was ready to build $70 million in community projects, Burleson made them a proposal: acting as an owner’s representative, his firm would oversee the city work. While Burleson Construction would get an owner’s representative fee, it also meant it couldn’t bid on the work. The company is now managing five city projects that involve four architectural firms and five contractors.

The strategy worked out well in today’s fiercely competitive market. The firm could depend on the fee, a factor that became critical as it saw its normal volumes constrict by 60 percent. “This is the first time since we’ve been in business we’ve gone more than two years without hiring anyone,” Burleson says.

But the company has been able to ride the downturn by tamping down hard on costs and noticing where others were making mistakes. “A lot of companies did work based on what their cash flow needs were,” Burleson says, “not on what the job was worth. Fortunately, we didn’t have to do that, because there’s not always a next job.”

Involvement creates opportunities

One company foundation that withstood all of these recent tests is its AGC involvement. Burleson sums up what he gets back from his association dues this way: “What’s a relationship worth? What’s a new idea worth? Just being involved in the state group’s self-insurance trust has more than saved what our dues have cost us.”

In addition to the owner’s representative strategy, Burleson also credits his AGC involvement with two other initiatives his company has started: BIM (Building Information Modeling) and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). The company used both approaches on one of its premier projects, local Milligan College’s Gilliam Wellness Center, opened in 2010.

Burleson saw early that BIM, which converts architectural drawings into three-dimensional virtual models, would help this firm get work. “You can build in a digital environment for the first time, instead of out on the jobsite, so it’s easier to catch mistakes,” he says. “We can take this out in the field, and show everyone the building model on a laptop. It’s like having 20/20 vision.” There is a learning curve, however. Burleson estimates it took 18 months for his firm to get fully comfortable with the process.

A Gold-level building

The company started its adoption of LEED, a nationally accepted environmental building benchmark process, in 2008. Now four Burleson professionals are LEED accredited – including Burleson. The Gilliam Wellness Center achieved a LEED Gold-level certification by the building team paying attention to and earning performance credits in five categories. For example, the company estimates it was able to divert 80 percent of the project’s landfill waste by sorting and processing normal jobsite trash – sheet rock, card board, etc.

Pervious pavement, automatic shades that drop as the sun rises, recycled vinyl flooring and movement-sensitive lighting all contributed to the building’s LEED certification. Burleson says the most challenging part of doing a LEED building, however, is educating a workforce that’s used to doing things the old way – such as tossing everything out and putting all discards into one pile. So he drove the point home by treating his crew to lunch, emphasizing it was paid for with part of the money the firm saved on landfill costs.

Building excellence

A Clemson University ROTC stint has lead Burleson to 30 years of U.S. Army active and reserve duty, much of it as a combat engineer, including a deployment during Desert Storm. “Patience is something a couple of my deployments have taught me, and patience is a tough thing in our business,” he says with a laugh.

Burleson is a natural leader, according to Wes Stowers, chairman of Stowers Machinery, the local Caterpillar dealer. Not only is he a client of Stowers, he also built the dealer’s tri-cities branch in Kingsport, Tennessee, including the 1993 original building and a 2000 addition. “He did everything he said he would do, and when we added on, we went right back to him,” adds Stowers. “You can’t tell that the two sections weren’t built together.”

The contractor also has a heart for community involvement. His son T.J.’s death at 15 of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome prompted Burleson to lead the volunteer charge to build the community’s Ronald McDonald House. And he’s gearing up to spearhead a similar effort for a hospice near the local Veterans Administration hospital.

Making use of both his Clemson University BS in building construction and his graduate degree in the School of Hard Knocks, Burleson teaches a three-day leadership class each year for AGC branches in California. He also has a return local speaking engagement closer to home.

“I think so much of his ethics, I have him speak to my students on that very subject,” says Jeremy Ross, associate vice president of the Eastern Tennessee State University Foundation, and university professor. “When I oversee a project involving private funds – and I can use any contractor I want – I always use Tommy because I know the end result will be a building of excellence.”

Burleson Construction

Year started: 1945

Number of employees: 20

Average annual revenues (past three years):

$3 to $5 million

Markets served: commercial, institutional and industrial buildings; water and wastewater

Three generations

In 1945, J.R. Burleson and his sons Grover and Reno started Burleson Construction, first concentrating on residential work. The firm incorporated in 1971, and moved into its present facility in 2003. Reno still serves as chairman of the board. Grover “Skip” Burleson, Burleson’s cousin, is vice president of operations, and works with the firm’s project managers to schedule equipment and labor. He also oversees the company’s water and wastewater projects.

Compact arm twisting

Burleson primarily owns compact equipment, including a compact excavator he had to do some arm-twisting to get his operator to run. “We had a nasty job where we had to put in footings on a confined slope,” Burleson says. Used to a backhoe, the operator was reluctant to try out the compact excavator. “But on that job he found out he could do so much more with the excavator than he could a backhoe. He became a firm believer.”

Brawley, California

By Mike Anderson

Hometown pride keeps this California contractor working hard for his friends, family and neighbors

A&R Construction

Year started: 1988

Annual volume: $5 to 7 million

Markets served: Grading and wet utilities

If home is indeed where the heart is, it explains plenty about why California contractor Terry Robertson, as one local public works official puts it, “comes through in every way you can possibly imagine.”

Terry Robertson has been the sole owner of A&R Construction since 1995.

 Born and raised in Brawley, a small city today of about 23,000 located in Southern California’s lush Imperial Valley, Robertson not only has his finger on the jobs his A&R Construction crews work on, but he truly knows, understands and appreciates the people for whom those jobs will benefit. This is not somebody else’s community; it’s his community.

Underground superintendent Ted Vogel goes over sewer project plans with Robertson at a commercial development site.

That’s why, as 2011 was showing promises of increased work for his company, there was one project in particular very much on his mind. In the heart of produce-growing country, Brawley has forever been dissected by railroad tracks that, when trains stop for their fresh cargo, regularly block traffic from moving east or west through the town’s core. For as long as Robertson can remember, it’s been an ongoing safety concern in the community. “They’ve always talked about building another fire station on the east side,” he says. And now it’s going to happen. A&R successfully bid on the new fire hall’s site-prep grading and wet utilities work – the primary focus of the company co-founded by Robertson.

After 13 years with a Brawley-based land leveling and construction company, Robertson and a co-worker, Vance Allen, struck out to form A&R Construction in 1988. Allen remained a partner until 1995, and Robertson is now the sole owner. The company’s start was scary. “Those weren’t the best of times,” he says. “We got in on the bottom of an upswing. Reagan was president, but ‘88 was still a little iffy.”

The partners quickly fell into work at geothermal processing facilities along the sub-sea-level Salton Sea lake. “A pad, a road, a pipeline … whatever they needed, we did it,” Robertson reports. “We went from just the two of us to probably about 10 guys in the first year,” including Eugene Lofton, who followed his two former co-workers to A&R, and is still with the company today.

Robertson reliability

A&R has grown “into one of the best companies we have here in the Imperial Valley,” says Yazmin Arellano, City of Brawley public works director and city engineer. “Their quality control is exceptional. And, if I have an emergency, I do not hesitate to call them, because I know their price is right and the workmanship is great. They are very, very, very reliable.”

Arellano’s enthusiasm doesn’t stop there: “They’re always honest, and they justify their costs; they never try to take advantage of you with a change order,” she says.

The first guy to come to work for A&R was Eugene Lofton, shown here with Robertson at a Brawley grading site.

Arellano’s sentiments are echoed by her colleague at the City of Imperial. “I have come to rely on them,” says Jackie Loper, public services director. “I have used them in situations where others may not be that reliable or good. They are so conscientious about what they do, and they are easy to sit down and talk with. When you run up on a problem that you’re really not sure exactly which way to go and do, they’ll sit down and help you work through it.”

Two days after last Christmas, A&R received an emergency call from a local irrigation district manager about an eroded concrete ditch near Holtville. Water from a torrential rainstorm had flowed off the roadway and down between the dirt and the ditch’s concrete lining. With two Caterpillar 345B L excavators, two 613C scrapers and a fleet of trucks importing about 5,000 cubic yards of dirt, Robertson’s crews went to work 24/7 for eight days culminating in the slipforming and pouring of a newly-built ditch with a 6-foot-wide bottom. “They had to have water back in that ditch in order for everybody to irrigate. These ditches are the lifeline around here,” says Robertson.

And just before the area’s Cattle Call Rodeo Weekend one November, a 2-foot-wide hole opened up on California Highway 111 in the spot where a manhole was supposed to be. “We worked all night,” Robertson says. “We closed the road, dug it out, poured a new base, set the new manhole and patched it back with cold-mix asphalt. Just as the sun was coming up, I drove it to see how smooth it was.”

If you take care of the people around you, they’ll take care of you, surmises Robertson. “We’re in it for the long haul,” he says. “We charge a fair price, do the job, and go on from there.”

Moving ahead

Recovering from a recession that hit housing-crazy California harder than most, A&R is starting to add to a staff that had been reduced from a height of 75 to as low as 25. Site prep and underground utility work is slowly returning for both commercial and multi-unit residential developments. “We’ve got a little backlog now,” Robertson says. By the early months of 2011, A&R had about 35 people on staff and was planning to add more as needed.

It was his employees who ultimately decided it was time for Robertson to move A&R Construction headquarters out of the family home, where his wife, Carleen, had managed office operations since the company’s inception.

A&R had in the early 1990s bought a three-acre property in Brawley’s east-side industrial park, where the company at first had a shop only. By the end of the decade, Robertson was considering building on the site, and asked his employees whether they wanted to grow or remain small. “They all voted to grow, so that’s what we did,” he says.

The new 5,000-square-foot office, backed by a 4,000-square-foot “showroom” for Robertson’s deep-rooted California classic auto passion, includes a nursery that has allowed office staff to bring their young children to work. A grandfather of six, Robertson is thrilled that two of his three children now work at A&R – daughter Renee and son Kenny – and that his son Deuce has his own grading and wet utilities construction company in Brawley.

Kenny, 25, is an equipment operator with “a good blade hand … he’s got that feel,” reports his father. Rarely do company jobs take employees more than 30 minutes away, and that’s important to the elder Robertson. “And it’s a good feeling when you hire a guy, and he works for you for a year or two and then he’s able to buy a home,” he says.

Supervisor/estimators Chris Denton and Johnnie Combs, Jr. scope out grading and underground projects, “and then the three of us sit down and talk about it,” says Robertson. “We’re pretty close, the three of us, and we like to stay on top of what’s happening. I’m a pretty hands-on guy.”

Fleet matters

Robertson’s devotion to Caterpillar equipment is, he says, in equal parts due to his mechanical service background predating A&R and the support he receives from Cat dealer Empire Southwest, which has an office in nearby Imperial. In this remote, blue-skied corner of America, “I bet you we don’t miss three days out of the year due to rain.”

He prefers to buy his equipment, including the 44 Cat-powered scrapers, graders, wheel loaders, and other equipment in his fleet, “because before I buy it, I’m going to make sure I need it.” This approach, too, has helped during the recession. “What keeps us competitive is that we own just about everything we’ve got. If we need to work pretty cheap on a job, we can. If you’ve got to go out and rent equipment, you’ll be in trouble.”

When he and Allen struck out on their own, their first purchase was a used 140G motor grader “that was pretty tired then, but I still own it,” Robertson says proudly. “I keep it for a spare; it’s like an old friend. If we have a job that needs a little bit of road maintenance while we’re doing something else, we’ll take it out there and park it, and if we need to run it for an hour, I’ll do it.”

An old friend always ready to help out? That seems about right for Terry Robertson.

Indiana, Pennsylvania

Force Inc.

Year started: 2000

Markets served: gas field site development, water impoundment construction, asphalt paving and milling, quarry and aggregates, environmental spill control, heavy haul trucks and vacuum trucks.

Bryan Force had it all set up. His dad David saw to it that he would have a good job at the local power plant as soon as he graduated from high school. And having worked there for decades, his dad knew all the ropes. Bryan had taken all the tests, met all the requirements and applied for the job. A steady paycheck was right around the corner.

Bryan Force and his brother Chris

But Bryan had his own ideas. On his 18th birthday he got his commercial driver’s license and went to work driving water trucks for a gas well services company. When he found about Bryan’s decision, his dad left him a scorching voice mail – a recording Bryan saved for several years to remind himself of the cost of going his own way.

After a year of driving for someone else Bryan took a rough business plan to a local bank to see if he could get a loan. The bank told him to come back with a revised plan. Bryan did – the next day – and was turned down again, but the loan officer made some suggestions. His third attempt met the same fate, but on the fourth day, with a much improved plan, he hit paydirt.

“Before, the only business I’d ever had with that bank was to get a loan for my four-wheeler,” Bryan says. “That loan officer went out on a limb for me.”

Never turn down a job

With that truck Bryan never turned down a job, often spending three or four days on the road, sleeping in the truck when necessary. One-hundred hour weeks were the norm. He handled the billing out of his bedroom in his parents’ house until his mother Susan grew alarmed at the size of the checks she was finding strewn about and pitched in to help with the bookkeeping.

To repair the roads damaged by the heavy caravans of the drilling companies, Force Inc. started a paving division that includes paving and milling machines.

Bryan soon saw that there was more opportunity than one truck and one driver could fill, so he bought another truck and talked brother Chris into driving for him. Chris enrolled in college after high school but drove the trucks every chance he could get.

The jobs and the checks kept coming, but now that he had payments to make Bryan was treading on thin margins. “At one point I remember telling Chris to be careful with the tires, because we didn’t have money for new ones. If we blew a tire, we’d be out of business,” Bryan says.

Fortunately, the brothers’ work ethic soon pushed the cash flow into the positive range. Oil and gas companies were discovering record amounts of natural gas buried deep in the Marcellus shale deposits in Pennsylvania and needed all the subs they could get. The business continued to grow and Bryan continued to add trucks. His once skeptical dad even took early retirement from the power company and went to work for Bryan running the fabrication shop where they custom build their trucks.

Dozer makes a difference

Never one to sit still, Bryan noticed that his trucks often sat idle, waiting on the drilling company’s dozers to pull them to well sites that are too rough or boggy for trucks. And a sitting truck makes no money.

Operating its own quarry enabled Force to control the cost and scheduling of aggregates needed to feed his trucks and sites.

So Bryan decided to see what kind of help he could get at Cleveland Brothers, the local Caterpillar dealership. “I was 20 years old. I had $150,000 in loans and I was asking for a $140,000 dozer,” Bryan says. “That’s when Cat Financial and Cleveland Brothers stepped in and went to bat for me.”

Ron Hess at Cleveland Brothers remembers the meeting. “This kid had everything together. He knew where he wanted to go. I told my guys, ‘I don’t know what it is, but there is something about this guy.’” Bryan soon had his own D5, the first of many dozers he would buy from the dealer, and much better control of his schedule.

It wouldn’t be the last time someone sized up the young man and decided he had the right stuff. “They really don’t let anything stand in their way,” says John Ehrig, a salesman at Groff Tractor who has sold him three milling machines. “They’re not afraid to tackle anything.”

Diversification and complication

Massive drilling rigs and the equipment to support them are hauled to the sites on dozens of tractor trailer loads. These do considerable damage to small rural roads. But drilling companies want to drill, not repave roads, and Bryan quickly figured that out.

He started simply, just filling potholes, but soon acquired milling machines and pavers. Neither Bryan nor Chris had ever run a paver or milling machine, but says Bryan, “We just got the machines and figured it out. I learned how to run every single one of these so I could teach the others.” Bryan ran the company paving division himself for five years and then hired someone with 20 years of experience to take the reins so he could concentrate on growing other parts of the company.

Force Inc. acquired mobile rock crushing and screening equipment and used it on various drill sites to provide the aggregates. But Bryan could also see that this part of the business was also ripe for growth. To do so he formed a partnership with a friend, Chris Evans, and named it Kinkead Aggregates (www.kinkeadaggregates.com.)

Tough love

In 2005 Force Inc. pushed into the $5-million annual revenues range but Bryan felt like the structure of the company was holding him back. “The first five years were a huge learning experience,” Bryan says. “But I didn’t know what my operating margins were and I didn’t know how to get to the next level. I had 25 employees, but I was micromanaging everything.”

Chris finished his associates degree in business management and came back into the company full time in 2005, but there was still more to do than the two of them could accomplish in a day. So, for a considerable amount of money, Bryan did something rare for a young contractor. He hired a consultant.

IPA management consultants (www.ipa-c.com) spent a month with the company analyzing its processes and culture and making recommendations on how to change. Bryan says being shown where he was wrong and being told what to do by a complete stranger was the most agonizing experience in his life, but he swallowed his pride and followed the advice.

“It was tough but it was necessary, and they guaranteed that within one month they would have us moving in the direction we needed to go,” Bryan says.

Force Inc. had been using QuickBooks Pro Contractor for accounting. The consultant convinced Bryan he needed not just an accounting tool, but a business management tool. “Pro Contractor made taxes easier but it was not what we needed to make the company more efficient,” he says.

They decided to upgrade to QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions. Considerably more robust, Enterprise Solutions had features that enabled Bryan and his managers to measure and analyze the real profitability of each division.

In addition to restructuring the company’s finances and organization, the consultant convinced Bryan he had to hire more supervisors and put them in the right places. “Relinquishing control was the hardest part,” Bryan admits. But as a result of the financial restructuring and the delegation of authority, over the next five years the company’s revenues tripled and the number of employees swelled to more than 80.

Grand strategy

From the beginning Bryan’s basic strategy has been to start each new division of the company in response to a customer need and then, as he says, “blow it up,” to the most efficient size the market will bear. This “get-big-quick” philosophy suits the brothers’ style well, and with the reorganization in 2005 has catapulted the company into the $15-million range in 2010.

This year the continuing boom in gas well development has the company on track to earn $20 to $25 million and grow to more than 120 employees.

Success breeds success

One of the consequences of running a successful company is that some of the people you hire eventually figure out what makes you successful and will try and replicate that success themselves. Bryan estimates that a dozen or so employees have left Force Inc. in the last few years and started various types of construction companies on their own. But he doesn’t hold a grudge and seems proud of the fact that almost all of them have succeeded. Indiana, Pennsylvania, is a small town and he runs into these former employees from time to time and is friends with all. Bryan sees their success as a validation of his philosophy.

“Despite the recession,” Bryan says, “there is still opportunity out there. You just have to have the guts and the drive to go out and claim it.” EW

Bryan speaks

Go to www.equipmentworld.com/digital or use your smart phone to download a video of Bryan’s comments on this tag. (Download a free app on your smart phone from http://http://www.gettag.mobi and point your phone at the square to download the video.)

Picking people:

Attitude before experience

Force Inc. could not have grown from zero to $15 million in 10 years without good workers, and Bryan and Chris have a simple formula when it comes to new hires. When they need expertise, they hire experts, but most of the time they want young people with minimal experience. “We make them into what we need,” Bryan says. “The essential ingredient is a good work ethic.”

And the right work ethic and a willingness to learn new tasks can quickly move somebody up the ladder at Force Inc. “We have a lot of supervisors who are under 30 years old,” Bryan says. The pace of the work and need for workers who can think on their feet and solve problems quickly weeds out slackers and the people who just want a paycheck.

For potential supervisors, training for the next level up typically involves shadowing Bryan or Chris or one of their supervisors. If they’re bright and inquisitive they’ll pick it up fast, Bryan says. If not, no amount of book knowledge or formal instruction can convey all that needs to be done.

This side-by-side training also shows the future supervisors how Bryan and Chris expect customers and fellow employees to be treated. “This ensures when you are dealing with my management staff you are getting treated as well as if I was handling it myself,” Bryan says.

Serious about safety

The oil and gas exploration business is the major leagues and Bryan knows his company has to perform at a major league standard in order to win bids. That includes safety standards. One way he has done that it to enroll the company in something called ISNetworld (www.isnetworld.com).

Weekly tailgate meetings keep crews apprised of safety issues.

This worldwide organization collects and verifies safety, procurement, quality and regulatory information from some 30,000 contractors and suppliers. Petroleum, drilling and pipeline companies, and government contracting agencies view this information and use it to help them make decisions about subcontractors.

Bryan also has a policy whereby when one customer asks for a safety-related item or procedure on one jobsite then Force Inc. will institute that item or policy across the board for all customers and jobsites. When a drilling company recently asked company employees to wear flame retardant clothing on its drill sites, Bryan made flame retardant clothing mandatory on all the drill sites his crews serviced.

From left: dad David, mom Susan, Bryan holding son Caden, Bryan’s wife Brittnei holding newborn Cruiz, and Chris holding Bryan’s son Chace.

Matt Keith is the company safety coordinator and oversees the administration of all aspects of the training. The company has monthly safety committee meetings and weekly tailgate meetings for the crews. Employees are routinely enrolled in OSHA training classes, and the company also participates in SafeLandUSA, (www.safelandusa.org) a safety testing, training and accreditation program for the oil and gas industry

Bryan also takes safety incident reporting seriously. Everybody from entry level laborers on up has equal authority to shut down a job if they think something is unsafe. A safety bonus is paid each month to each crew that goes without a reportable incident. But to prevent workers from covering up incidents to make the bonus, the company makes it clear that failure to report an incident will result in an immediate firing.

Nacogdoches, Texas

An emphasis on quality and operational controls keeps this contractor steady through the downturn.

By Marcia Gruver Doyle

Cox Contractors

Year started: 1977

Annual volume: $11 million

Markets served: Commercial, government and private general building construction

Cox Contractors has seen its company’s volume of contracts more than double during the past five years, something Sandra Cox attributes to the repeat business and referrals they get from satisfied customers. “But even so, we’ve tried not to grow too fast or overload our people,” she says. “It’s always a juggling act.”

Sandra – or Sandy, as she’s most commonly called – serves as president of the firm, using her MBA to concentrate on estimating, accounting, job costing and general management. “Sandra is very, very punctual,” says John Chassell with A-1 Rental. “You could set a clock by when we get their checks. And they’re an employee-oriented company. They are eager to do the right thing and will help their people out in any way they can.”

Sandy’s husband Stephen serves as Cox Contractor’s secretary/treasurer, and has worked in construction since he was in high school. Stephen concentrates on superintendent duties, bidding and negotiating jobs, scheduling and overall co-management of the business.

This general construction/construction management firm specializes in general building construction for a variety of commercial, governmental and private clients. Starting in 1977 as a one-owner concrete specialty contractor, the company now finds that more than two-thirds of its projects are for local school districts.

“They’ve really grown,” says James Crelia with Few Ready Mix. “In the five-county area I serve every school is doing some kind of new construction and Cox has gotten a good portion of it because of their top-notch reputation. I can name every superintendent they have with every crew because they’ve all been with them at least 10 years.”

Foot in the door

This growth isn’t just the product of hard work. Sandy studied the local market, and became frustrated when the company made more than 15 unsuccessful bids for work at the local Stephen F. Austin State University. On the advice of someone at the university, the company applied for and received a Historically Underutilized Business certification from the State of Texas. “It opened some doors at the university and we began to do general contracting work for them,” says Sandy.

Inside/outside team: Stephen Cox serves as the company’s secretary/treasurer and has been working with concrete since he was in high school. Sandy, president, manages the business, including accounting and job costing.

While the HUB certification has helped, so has the firm’s reputation for providing high satisfaction. In its 34-year history, Cox Contractors has completed all of its projects on (or ahead of) schedule and on (or under) budget. “We’ll do anything from a little bitty sidewalk to a $14 million project,” Sandy comments. “Our ability to do all types of concrete work has kept us going.”

Sandy keeps an eagle eye out on bid reporting services, deciding which jobs to bid on – or not. “There are some we just need to pass on,” she says.

School days

In addition to working for the university, the company has a standing contract to do all of the concrete repair work in the city of Nacogdoches. But the bulk of their work is for area school districts, such as the Cushing Independent School District, usually putting in additions or new construction. “Some of the schools like to use our construction management services, and some of them still want a hard dollar bid, so we do both,” Sandy says.

Compact equipment makes up the majority of the company’s fleet.

Fortunately, area school work picked up just as the economy was going south. “We had some cutbacks, but we still had work,” Sandy says. “Adjusting our profit according to our workload is something I have to stay ahead of – it’s probably one of the hardest things I have to manage.”

Know what you’ve got

Before Sandy came on board, Stephen had hired a bookkeeper for his then fledgling company. Unfortunately, this person left things in a mess, and Steve turned to Sandy for help. “I realized then that a lot of contractors don’t have a clue whether they’re making money or not,” she says. “If they have money in the bank, they think they’re making money, but that’s not always the case.”

And so Sandy pays close attention not only to each job’s profitability, but also accounts receivable and accounts payable. “If you keep a handle on those three things, you’ll be successful,” she says.

Office manager Shelby Chassell assists with bids and proposals, and processes subcontracts, change orders, etc. She also guides new subs through required paperwork.

Her prompt pay attitude is reflected in how the company treats subcontractors. “We were a sub for a long time, so we know how they feel, and we try to treat them the same way we’d like to be treated,” she says. Cox Contractors will work with subs to help them fill out necessary paperwork, such as AIA Applications for Payment. “It will scare them to death, and so our office manger will sit down with them and train them on how to fill it out,” Sandy says.

The firm also recognizes when it needs extra help, and has hired a former university president part time to help them form their proposals and market their services to educators. “He knows what they’re looking for,” Sandy says. “He can talk their language. It’s worked out well.”

The right machine

Sandy and Stephen worked out of their home until 1986, when they built a 3,000-square foot office on a 20-acre site on the eastern edge of Nacogdoches. The office complex has grown over the years and now includes a shed and storage facilities.

When it’s not on a jobsite within the 90-mile radius the company works in, the company’s equipment is stored at an offsite construction yard. Cox Contractors’ fleet includes backhoes, skid steers and compact excavators.

“We’ve really come to appreciate the mini excavator,” says Sandy. “We used to put in concrete beams using a trencher, but we rented a mini one day and bought it the next. We made a 20 percent profit on that job, and we had budgeted for a 5 percent profit, so it really made a big difference. Now we don’t use either our backhoes or skid steers as much anymore.”

Rewarding work

“Sometimes owners get the idea that their construction job is going to be perfect, but it never is,” Sandy comments. “There is always going to be something that someone didn’t think of. But it’s also very rewarding. You have a strong sense of satisfaction when a job is complete.”

“They are quick to respond to problems, questions and the request of both architects and owners,” says Jerry Sutton with Morgan Hill Sutton & Mitchell Architects, Lufkin, Texas. “They are a pleasure to work with.” EW