Industrial Contractors Inc. says its flexible and capable employees have helped allow its diverse projects to succeed.

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“If you don’t like change, you’ll like irrelevance even less.” CEO Alan Braun recently read this quote by former Army General Eric Shinseki, and the statement resonated instantly with the owner and CEO of Industrial Contrators , a general, electric and mechanical contracting company. “I like that,” he says. “People in our company have said ‘Let’s quit trying to get more work; let’s get higher-profit work,’ but we know that if we don’t increase our volume, we don’t increase our profit. It’s also not easy to find higher-profit jobs, because as soon as you find one, other people will get in line.” Braun realizes that if his firm limits itself, it will, in fact, lose its relevance.

To expand its horizons, Industrial Contractors increased its customer base. With skyrocketing gas prices and the decline of the American automotive industry, which affects a large amount of Industrial Contractors’ customers, the company is seeking work in the power and energy sectors. “Those areas seem to be booming,” Braun notes.

Braun says the rising price of gas is making it difficult to stay competitive, but “There’s not much we can do about it,” he admits. “We’re trying to get in the right market, and I think we’ve done that by getting into the power and energy sector.

“We’re willing to change and go in different areas of construction,” Braun says. “We just about think we can build anything and we pretty well proved it over the years. We don’t work on the river; we don’t do dams or highways, but in the general construction, power and commercial and industrial end, we think we can go anywhere.”

Skills Are Key
Braun says it can go anywhere because his company maintains a flexible, capable staff. “We think there will always be a niche for us, by the fact that we have all these highly-skilled personnel and continue to keep them,” he says. “And we’re willing to do work on any type of basis the customer wants us to do it on: Firm price, fixed fees, design/build, construction management – we’re willing to do it. The delivery system means nothing; it’s the type of job that matters.”

Braun’s father purchased the Evansville, Ind.-based company from Fuqua Industries in 1964. The company had originally focused on industrial and commercial construction, which Braun’s father continued after purchasing it.

Industrial brought in about $3 million in annual revenue at that time, and grew steadily, expanding to general, mechanical and electric construction. Today, Industrial Contractors’ revenue is $350 million a year.

“What sets us apart is the fact that we do our own work, that we employ all the major crafts and that we’re able to handle large, labor-intensive jobs with short schedules,” Braun declares. “We just keep a core of craftspeople, and also management, at all times to take on those projects.”
 

Major Project
A recent example of doing its own work is its work for American Electric Power in spring 2007. The company had 10 weeks to change-out superheats and reheats in the company’s boiler, an extremely large amount of work to be completed in a short amount of time.

“It was almost all labor,” Braun explains. “I think we had just the organization to pull it off, with the cooperation of the owner.”

Skilled Labor Slump
Although Industrial Contractors prides itself on its strong work force, it faces a growing problem in its industry: A lack of skilled labor.

“I think our biggest challenge right now is manpower,” Braun admits. “The fact that these crafts have early retirements, that the skilled labor market is diminishing, that not as many people are getting into the building trades and we still have the same amount of work makes things hard.

“We have a skilled labor shortage, as well as shortage of people in the construction industry.”

Although Industrial’s staff may not be large enough to take on more work, it is certainly capable, Braun stresses.

“I think the fact that we have a larger percentage of long-time employees, and the fact that we’re able to control the work because we do it ourselves, really sets us apart,” he says.

“We’ve been able to train our employees throughout the years by the type of jobs that we do,” Braun continues. “We challenge our people, and we try to keep them competitively paid. I think people like working for a private company that is family owned.”

Safety Focus
The company says it has one of the best safety records in the country. It has gone 16 million man-hours – or almost four years – without a lost-time accident, it says.

“We just really work at being safe – that’s the only way you do it,” Braun explains. “You strive for improvement.

“Every year, our goal is no lost man hour, and every year, we ratchet down our number of incidents we have.

“Every year, we set our goal higher, and the incidents are lower.

“We try every year to improve, and that’s the only way you get better.”