Climbing the charts

Wisconsin contractors make national noise

By Jeremy Harrell

Wisconsin companies place among the 400 largest general contractors in America, as compiled by Engineering News-Record. 2003 Ranking 2002 Ranking The Boldt Company, Appleton 104 109 Michels Corp., Brownsville 116 116 Edward Kraemer & Sons Inc., Plain 135 221 Miron Construction Co. Inc., Neenah 143 180 Marshall Erdmann & Associates, Madison 188 216 Lunda Construction Co., Black River Falls 205 276 HK Systems Inc., Milwaukee 237 188 CG Schmidt Inc., Milwaukee 242 271 J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., Madison 243 278 Hunzinger Construction Co., Brookfield 290 368 C.D. Smith Construction, Fond du Lac 301 258 Hoffman, Appleton 337 Not ranked J.P. Cullen & Sons Inc., Janesville 338 316 Stevens Construction Corp., Madison 388 Not ranked

Wisconsin companies place among the 400 largest general contractors in America, as compiled by Engineering News-Record.

Wisconsin-based companies aren't yet in the same league as the international construction behemoth, but Badger State firms are creeping up the list of America's biggest contractors. In the latest posting of Engineering News-Record's Top 400 general contractors, Wisconsin is home to 14 of the companies, including eight that moved up in the rankings and two that appeared on the elite roster after no-shows last year.

Aside from providing enviable fodder for letterheads and Web sites, the ENR rankings provide a snapshot of the different approaches companies take to find success.

For some it means moving beyond the borders of the state, for others it means consolidating and maximizing domestic operations, while for still others it means doing a little of both.

Two bridge builders, Edward Kraemer & Sons Inc., Plain, and Lunda Construction Co. Inc., Black River Falls, provide good examples, as both companies shot up more than 75 spots from last year's posting. Kraemer is ranked at 135, and Lunda stands at 205.

"Both of them are very aggressive," said Tom Walker, executive director of the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association. "They're very good at competing in new markets, and they'll go to the new markets."

But when it comes to working elsewhere, the companies have charted their success through diverging tactics, Walker said. "Lunda's specialty is deeper and narrower in terms of geography," meaning the company stays mainly in states abutting Wisconsin. "Kraemer, he can work from coast to coast. They're different companies in that sense.

"If you want to get in (the ENR list), you have to work nationally," Walker continued. "We have protected our own market very well, and we export our contractors."

Miron Construction Co. Inc., Neenah, exported itself to Iowa, where it opened an office in Cedar Rapids a few years ago. This is new geographic diversity for a company that once rarely strayed across the state line, and it has helped propel Miron to a new high on the ENR 400 at 143. Now, the firm will put its energy into growing in Wisconsin and Iowa and broadening its reach in terms of specialty rather than geography, said Craig Uhlenbrauck, Miron's director of marketing. "We're diverse within those two markets. We can look at a lot of different projects in terms of size and type."

Staying close to home has its advantages, too. Hunzinger Construction Co., Brookfield, was one of the poll's biggest risers, moving up 78 places to 290 without extending beyond southeastern Wisconsin and Madison, said John Hunzinger, the firm's president. The company's beeline up the charts didn't come from a decision that 2002 was going to be the year to boost profit.

"The amount of volume we do, that's no measurement to us," Hunzinger said. "It's never been a yardstick of success. We don't start off the year with volume goals or revenue goals."

Instead, at semiannual meetings, Hunzinger folks huddle and survey the landscape of the competition, marketplace and the company's own performance and "think about the company we want to be," he said. Whether it's becoming a safer company or the best industry employer, Hunzinger performs a "gap analysis" to figure out what it will take to achieve the target. Volume, in this respect, is a byproduct of satisfying other goals. "We measure success by seeing how well we did at implementing these tactical initiatives," Hunzinger said. "We know that will translate into more work."

And in 2002, the strategic plan didn't involve geographic expansion, but that's not to say the future won't hold something different. The firm did have an office in Florida for 11 years, and Hunzinger once worked all over the country before deciding that Wisconsin offered ample opportunities. If the company returns to interstate commerce, it will be because it's a worthwhile goal and not something to do just for the sake of doing it, Hunzinger said. "If it was the right fit, we'd do it again."

After not appearing on the list last year, Hoffman, the Appleton-based design and construction management shop, splashed on the chart at 337. Like Hunzinger, Paul Hoffman, the firm's owner and president, said his company doesn't "put a lot of stock" into lists such as ENR's top 400. Volume is a statistically simple tool to form rankings, but if it gauged more subjective factors such as customer satisfaction, "you'd see that list in a dramatically different order," Hoffman said.

That outlook informs Hoffman's business philosophy. Rather than pursue new geographic markets, the firm focuses on its own project-delivery method, a patented design/build system known as Total Project Management. ("It starts with the time of dreaming and takes owners through to completion," Hoffman said.) The company also focuses on core markets such as K-12 education and senior residences. Meeting the demands of those three areas is more pressing than undertaking a vast geographic expansion. Unlike Bechtel and the handful of general contractors that build pipelines in South America and airports in Karachi, most of the ENR 400 "are regional firms that tend to do a predominant amount of their work in a tight geographic area," Hoffman said.

At the same time, however, Hoffman's geographic area is poised for growth. The company recently inked a deal with Alberici Corp., St. Louis, which placed 47th on the list and has offices scattered around North America. Hoffman has poured all of its resources into the partnership, known as Hoffman LLC, and Alberici is fronting significant capital. The result is a mix of talent and cash that will take Hoffman in new directions, "not only for growth from a financial standpoint, but growth from a geographic standpoint," Hoffman said. "It certainly opens the door to new markets. It will help us look at geographic expansion."

And maybe that's where Hoffman will find a higher ranking, even if it wasn't searching for it.