Smooth sailing
State’s top general
contractors
chart course for success
By
Jeremy Harrell
Daily Reporter Staff
Wisconsin’s
top general contractors waxed up their boards to ride a wave of
unprecedented volume recorded so far in 2001, and many are positioning
themselves for success in what may be a harsher economic climate
in the coming months.
"We have
almost $200 million of new sales and a backlog as we work off
our existing work," said Bill Harvat, vice president at Miron
Construction Company Inc., the Menasha-based general contractor.
"We’ll be fully employed into next year. We’re
pretty optimistic."
Harvat said
Miron owes its success in the last year to intimate owner involvement
in the company’s day-to-day operations, both in the sales
and construction departments. In addition, Miron has relied on
staples of good business, he said.
"We’re
competitive," Harvat said. "We have a good safety program.
We have good, experienced project managers and superintendents.
We probably have some of the finest equipment, which helps us
do our jobs efficiently and safely. We have good customer relations.We
have an open-book policy that allows us to share cost information
with owners and subcontractors.”
Although 2001
is on pace to break last year’s mark for record industry
growth, the economy, particularly in the private sector, is already
showing signs of a slump. As the market swings to public work,
companies operating primarily in public contracting have doubled
their efforts to maintain a strong presence and competitive edge
there, said Michael Moore, vice president of J.H. Hassinger Inc.,
a Menomonee Falls general contractor that specializes in public
work.
"You
have to stay in the market and know it well," he said. "Here’s
an analogy: When a banker wants to build a new bank, he talks
to a contractor who knows how to build a bank. We get a lot of
opportunities that other people don’t get."
New economy
As the economy
tapers off, Moore said his company is taking two important, yet
seemingly opposing, approaches to getting new contracts: trimming
the company’s fat while diversifying its areas of specialization.
"We’re
trying to be able to do a lot of different kinds of projects and
have our costs in line for each," he said. "An owner
can see if you’re running efficiently. You want them to say,
‘Wow! They’re doing a great job!’ Repeat business
in this industry comes from word-of-mouth."
Dan Peterson,
vice president of J.H. Findorff & Son Inc. in Madison, echoed
Moore’s observation. Findorff gets a large chunk of its work
through negotiation, and the company strives for high customer
satisfaction, which provides the firm with leverage in the negotiated
job market.
"We have
a tremendous amount of repeat business," Peterson said. "Many
owners we’ve worked with before negotiate directly with us
to do new work."
Solidifying
the customer base will become even more important as the economy
slows, said Michael Johnson, president of IEI General Contractors
Inc. in De Pere. Rather than take risks looking for a variety
of jobs on the bid market, tougher fiscal times mean shoring up
a base of repeat clients and staking claim to a particular industry
area, he said.
"We’ve
been spending more time and effort with our regular owners,"
Johnson said. "We’ll do less competitive bidding in
the coming year and put more of our office work into customer
satisfaction. You have to find your niche in the industry that
other people might shy away from. You have to find a category
where you have an upper hand on the competition."
Angling for
jobs through competitive bidding, however, could be an effective
way to stay on top of the negotiated market, Findorff’s Peterson
said. Lining up Findorff against other firms can help keep the
company’s costs on par with the open market, he said.
"Being
competitive in the bid market is helpful in the negotiated market,"
Peterson said. "That way people know they’ll get the
best price."
Despite projections
of a slowing economy, principals at the state’s top contractors
said they think they can chart a course that leads to success
in the coming year.
"If you’re
not going forwards, then you’re going backwards," Harvat
said. "We’ve always continued to grow. We’re positioning
ourselves well with estimators and project managers who know how
to do their jobs."
And having
a history of getting jobs in the public sector might be of imminent
importance, Peterson said.
"I think
we’ve been able to maintain our position through all economic
situations over the year," he said. "We might also see
a little swing from the negotiated market to the hard bid market."
Madison
writer Jeremy Harrell can be reached at 608-260-8570 or by email.
