Tag: contractor stories

Business

South Carolina’s Chipley Company named 2017 Contractor of the Year

Roy Chipley, owner of the Chipley Company in Florence, South Carolina, was named Equipment World’s 2017 Contractor of the Year at ceremonies in Las Vegas on Saturday. In 1995, Chipley walked away from from a successful career with Lockheed Martin—where he worked on space shuttle missions with NASA and later asset deployment with the Defense Department—to […]

March 13, 2017

Home

Florida contractor donates 1 roof for every 10 it sells

At TB Roofing & Construction, the belief is, “the real point in life,” is giving back to the community. That’s what the St. Petersburg, Florida, company’s Lincoln Sziranko told Bay News 9 TV in a recent report on one of the families TB’s work has benefited. According to the station, TB partnered with Pathway 2 Success, a […]

February 23, 2015

Success Stories

Zeal for diversification, taking care of fleet key to Wm. Winkler Company’s success

“We love to do anything that involves concrete,” says Brian Winkler, 47, president of Wm. Winkler Company.  In fact, concrete has been Wm. Winkler Company’s material of choice since Brian’s grandfather started the firm in Spokane, Washington, in 1919. His grandfather did curb and gutter work, and Brian’s father, the oldest of 11 children, joined […]

September 1, 2014

Success Stories

Mentoring spirit enables Pennsylvania contractor Doug Thomas to build a people-first company

There are two red chairs in Doug Thomas’ office. Sitting in one when Thomas closes the door is not where you want to be. That means it’s time for a serious talk and, fortunately, it doesn’t happen too often. Such talks are reserved for the most blatant of safety violators at Thomas Construction, located in […]

June 1, 2014

Success Stories

How a loyalty to your employees can result in big growth for your construction business

“I’ve stayed with Larman Construction so long because of this guy right here,” said Fred Barhydt, pointing a finger at company owner Vernnen Larman. Barhydt, a Larman employee for 30 years, was just one of the employees I met expressing this sentiment during my visit to the Garland, Texas-based Equipment World Contractor of the Year […]

February 12, 2014

Business

Lean and Mean: How 3 brothers built Glendale Excavating into a successful company by managing its size

Glendale Excavating’s three brothers—Tommy, Dany and Greg Giangiulio—take pride in their construction heritage. “We’re third generation operating engineers,” says Dany. “We watched our grandfather operate equipment when we were kids, and begged to go to work with our father.” Adds Greg with a laugh: “It’s not that we had any choice in the matter.” Glendale […]

February 4, 2014

Business

Construction crew rescues live deer from basement of house it’s building

Construction crews find all kinds of things on, and often underneath, the jobsite. Suffice it to say, it’s not often that it gives them a fight on its way out of the ground. But that’s exactly what happened when a crew composed of members from Tim Halbrook Builders and Steve Fischer Construction found a live, 9-point […]

November 11, 2013

Business

North Carolina paving contractor indicted for government contract fraud by using “disadvantaged business” as a pass through

Last week, a grand jury handed down a criminal indictment charging Boggs Paving Inc., based out of Monroe, North Carolina, with government contract fraud. The 29-count indictment charges the company and six co-conspirators with the following crimes: conspiracy to defraud the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT); conspiracy to commit wire fraud; conspiracy to commit mail […]

July 29, 2013

Success Stories

West Virginia contractor inspires devotion through his own loyalty to others

In today’s fickle world, many are often willing to abandon what they know and like for the latest and greatest, especially when it comes to the job market. Construction is no different; many contractors will tell you half their labor will leave and work for someone else for a seemingly tiny pay increase. That’s one […]

July 1, 2013

Business

How did Stalco Construction triple its project volume during the recession? Adaptability and marketing.

Kevin Harney started Islandia, New York-based Stalco Construction in 1992 with only $1,700. Fast forward to 2012 and the company made $64 million in revenue and was able to achieve monstrous growth during the recession. Just what kind of growth? Before the 2008 recession, annual project volume at Stalco was $40 million. Now, it’s at […]

June 24, 2013

Workforce

Sioux Falls women finding work they love in construction industry

After seeing the results of a Pew Research survey saying 40 percent of U.S. moms are now the breadwinners in their households, news station KSFY out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, did some digging and filed an interesting report about the number of women in the area now doing construction work. KSFY talked to several women […]

June 17, 2013

Business

Loyalty a two-way street for successful Colorado contractor T-Bone Construction

With a company he built from the ground up starting in 1987, Michael Thibault’s T-Bone Construction in Colorado Springs was going full speed ahead when the recession hit. As a builder of commercial and industrial buildings, truck maintenance facilities, and car and truck dealerships, Thibault was hit with a double whammy. The big customers quit […]

April 1, 2013